The Nightmare’s Return
by Lola Jaramillo
Summary: A very familiar nightmare figure from Rachel’s past comes back to haunt her, as life for her and others has aged some time now, since she last saw and fought the presence with their help. Will she win this new battle, or will Rachel and other MS members meet a more sinister fate this time around... Friendships and romances are both pre-existing, and than newly developed...
1. One

-Rachel looked outside of her dorm window. It had been a couple of years since she had decided to sign up for college. It was a community college, that offered some good courses. It had been years since she finished grade school, and graduated from high school. She had tried to get jobs involving writing, but no one really seemed to be hiring scary story tellers. Rachel had attempted to write other kinds of stories, but it didn't feel right. She kept getting turned down by publishers that she sent her manuscripts to, while working different jobs after she graduated. She was so hopeful that she would get her work fully published and become a real life selling author, her books lining shelves in book stores, that she didn't put too much thought into whatever else she could do in life. The small part time jobs she had taken while writing her stories and trying to get them accepted were mostly just paychecks so she could have at least some money for herself, and some to give to her mother for groceries and to help a little with other bills since Rachel lived with her, until she became a successful author.

But after a few years Rachel's mother started to talk her into other options for her life. That maybe some more schooling would be good for her, in case the "whole writing thing" didn't turn out. So Rachel started to go to classes in her community college classrooms. After a year of going to classes at the school, Rachel decided to move into a dorm, her mother helping her with the payments. Rachel told her mother that it would be easier to think about her classes, but Rachel mainly wanted to just be away from home for once, she wanted to feel that sense of being out in the world. She also needed more self-reliability, and hoped to find more of herself while on her own. She called her mother every night after her day was over, but only visited every now and than on the weekends. Rachel was twenty-four now, and was good at taking care of herself.

Looking outside her window, Rachel thought back to past days when she was still in grade school, and when it was easier to speak to her friends. Everyone had mostly split apart due to different life and career choices after graduation. Akiko went off to film school to do more things in film, and Graham decided to go to the same school as well, but for lessons in, 'Historic Film Accuracy In Horror'. It was going to help him absolutely perfect criticism in his favorite genre in film, and make him more of a professional about it. Louise went into fashion design, Adam to veterinary school, and Gavin..

Gavin had gone to stay with his mom for awhile, after a big argument with his dad. Gavin had felt as if he was constantly getting lectured to by his dad about what to do after graduation, and not being listened to about wanting to possibly do something other than college. Gavin's mom lived a county away from his dad's and his home, so when there wasn't anywhere for Gavin to stay for awhile till him and his dad had some time away from each other, so things could cool down, he told Rachel he was going to stay with his mom for awhile, and that he would call Rachel everyday and also do some FaceTime with her till he got back.

It was fine, but when he got back both he and Rachel only saw each other a couple of times per week, as Gavin was now doing intern work at a successful local bookstore. His dad had wanted him to apply to college but like Rachel, Gavin wanted to stay involved in storytelling, convincing the head manager of the bookstore to give him a chance to be an apprentice, and eventually run the store. And Gavin had the motive to eventually be able to manage what kind of genre of books that could be spolighted in the store, like anything involving scary stories.

Everyone seemed to be happy. Every MS Member had found what they wanted to do in life. Everyone seemed headed for success. Everyone except Rachel. She looked outside her dorm room window at the people walking on the cement paths below, that ran through parts of the grass areas at the college, hoping that soon she would find something for the next step in her life.

When she lifted her head to look up at the sky, Rachel's eyes immediately looked over at a dark grey cloud gathering, hanging in the sky. It made no sense for them to be there, it had been a sunny day, with no hint of gloomy weather coming. These clouds were different too, they seemed to move on their own, with their own type of conscious. The clouds around them which stayed white and still, showed no sign of movement at all. The dark clouds drifted off into the distance and slowly disappeared. Rachel felt a sense of curious dread as she realized the clouds had drifted down to a familiar place. She moved back from the window and closed the curtains. She laid down on her bed and looked at the ceiling thinking about the dark clouds, that seemed to move towards the area of her former hometown. She saw no reason to be afraid, it was stupid to even think she had anything at all to be concerned about. But that weird feeling of dread still felt too real, coming from nowhere. A sudden thought came to Rachel as her mind recalled the last time she felt fear, as she looked up at a ceiling of hers. She got up quickly and unlocked the door to her room, and hurried out into the hall. She needed to clear her mind, and had the urge to go grab a glass, or bottle of cold water..

Back at Rachel's hometown where the dark clouds had reached down to the Earth's soil, the clouds moved and swirled around trees, bushes, and plants, seeming to search for something. Night was now approaching, as the clouds settled near one particular small plant, and formed into a dark figure resembling a man. "Marcus.." A dark voice said. A black scorpion that had once been part of a man but was now the lone survivor of the destruction that had befallen him, and had crawled under a near by cotton candy stand till all was still to try and survive the night of the incident, crawled out of a small hole in the ground. It had enough of the man still within it that it had fallen off of, that it had the sense enough to go and pick up a chunk of the stone that had broken off of the cane, that had been almost all but completely destroyed in the flames, it had been broken over. The scorpion than went off into the woods with the chunk of stone in it's claws, and had made itself a new home in the woods. Years passed, but the scorpion didn't die. It used all of it's instincts for food and shelter to survive, and kept the stone chunk close by it, even as it ventured for food outside of any shelter it made for itself. Now it was completely still as the dark figure stood over it, remembering the sight of that figure and his low and sinister voice.

"Did you manage to cheat death again?" The dark figure said. "It's quite a feat for something so much smaller now. Do you still have the stone shard?"

The scorpion hesitantly turned and went back into it's small lair, and than slowly came out, pushing the last remaining chunk of stone that was left over from the cane. The dark figure bent down and picked up the shard and stood back up. He took a moment to examine the shard, and than looked back down at the scorpion near it's foot.

"Oh poor Marcus. At such a small place again, because of a lost dream, and a young girl. I have a good enough reason to just take the last remaining part of you and your soul to Hell, and have you join your partner, Bartholomew there."

The dark figure moved it's foot over the small dark scorpion, ready to crush it. The scorpion in turn moved back a bit and than froze, waiting for the worst. But the dark figure's foot stayed still over the scorpion for a few seconds, than moved away.

"I wonder though.. What would you do, with one more chance.."

The dark figure finding more amusement in his use of Marcus's existence on Earth, than taking him to Hell at the moment, closed his fist over the shard of stone in his hand and squeezed hard. A cane grew out of his hand, with a pointed gold tip at the end of the smooth black cane, and at the top of it was the remaining shard of stone held in place, clutched by gold claws, once again. The dark figure opened his hand and let the cane fall to the ground.

"Another chance, just for the fun of it. Let's see what kind of harm you can cause this time, all alone..."

The dark voice faded, along with the dark figure it had been connected to. Now once again in cloud formation, the presence moved back out through the forest, off to wait and see what was to happen with the outcome of this deal.. It was also amusing seeing the young girl's face, which was now a young woman's, in the window of that building he went over purposely on his way to the woods. Yes fun seeing her confused and worried face as he passed over. And now she will see what she needs to worry about again, soon..

The black scorpion moved carefully over to the dropped cane laying on the ground, and touched it with one claw. The claw started to turn slowly into a hand as it grew, the rest of the scorpion's body following along with the transformation. Soon a man's body was hovering over the cane, head down, as he breathed in the air around him heavily. His nude figure now in full form, the man quickly lifted his head continuing to breath in heavily, his curly hair slightly bouncing as he did. His light green eyes were wide open, a look of re-energized life awakened in them, with also the look of rage. One word, a name, came from his mouth, with a hiss.

"RACHEL!" Marcus said out loud to one. His left hand closed around the black cane on the ground and it was quickly lifted up, let go for a second than caught again, as Marcus stood up from the ground, strengthening his grasp over the cane. The shard of stone at the top of it gleamed in the light moonlight, matching the gleam in Marcus's eyes, as night had completely fallen.. And a big grin spread across his face...

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	2. Chapter 2

-Rachel was in her dorm room again, going over some schoolwork on her desk, when she felt the chill. It was a cold feeling of fear of something that she wasn't sure of. She guessed it into being anxious about her life and schooling and got up to get a light jacket from her closet. She put it on and wrapped her arms around herself, closing her eyes to calm herself down. She was a bit sleepy and her mind was drifting to another place..

She saw trees and woods, and small animals moving around. And then she saw a blur of lights off in a distance, which quickly reached her sight, as if she flew magically now to them. She saw strings of things hanging across open spaces now, connecting to tents and small bulbs of light hanging, or coming from things they were attached to. Blurry figures walked past her, in and out of view. Colors of every kind were around her, made brighter in different areas by the place's lights. The environment felt familiar to her, and definitely not in a good way. The fear Rachel had been feeling came back stronger than before, and she had a sudden urge to run. She tried to turn, tried to back up, but wasn't sure how to move. She felt a terrifying presence near her. Another figure came into view, moving a thin, long object around. It stopped where Rachel's sight stayed locked, where it's back was turned to her. It was a figure of a man Rachel could see now. It was lean with something sitting on top of it. As if the man could sense something, or someone watching him. He looked like he was slowly turning towards Rachel. He stopped, and only a side of him could be seen. His head tilted down a bit, and a very thin and long object came up to his face, with a small object at the top of it. All was still for a moment, before the head of the man turned quickly to fully face Rachel, without warning. She couldn't see the man's face, but one thing about him stood out for sure this time.. A full outline of a top hat..

Rachel opened her eyes, wide open. Her heart was beating fast, and her breathing was faster, going quickly in and out of her nose and mouth. Her arms unfolded and she lost her balance, falling against the closet behind her. Rachel scrambled with her arms and hands, to try and catch herself, but ended up falling to the floor. She laid on her dorm room carpet with her back up against the closet door, legs out from under her where she fell. Her head felt light and dizzy as she tried to collect herself. Rachel knew she was in her dorm room and safe, but the image of the objects and lights in her mind were still lingering in her head. And the one image that still had her fearful, was the man in the top hat that looked over at her out of nowhere, holding that long stick. Rachel pushed herself off of the floor and slowly walked to her bed. She sat down and rocked herself back and forth, trying to ease herself..

Mr. Tophat had set out to create another carnival, after deciding to return to the place where he had set up the last one, where he had also met his supposed demise. Anything that could have been left over from the last carnival was entirely gone now, but there was still a big empty space. Mr. Tophat got to work quickly. He looked around for any bits of metal to be found on the ground, pieces of wood, and any other type of left about items that could be made into building materials. When he found everything he needed, he placed them on various places on the ground in the open space, and got the re-building started. Mr. Tophat pointed his new cane at a piece of metal he had found hear a stretch of road a bit earlier, and used it's power to make the metal stretch out into a long bar, which stretched out into a large metal frame, that formed a shed. Another spark of power from the cane to a piece of wood, and the piece splintered into many pieces until there were enough to grow into many large planks, that flew from the ground to the metal frame of the shed to complete it. Mr. Tophat smiled, satisfied with the creation. He went over to a piece of a ballon he found, probably from a busted one from some sort of past celebration, and made it stretch out until it was large enough to form a tent. Another piece of wood and more use of the cane, and another frame was built up, this one for the tent to be stretched across it. Soon the new carnival tents and stands were all built and ready. Just a few more additions needed, and everything would be complete..

"Hello there, sir." A man that looked to be in his early fifties came over to where Mr. Tophat was, from around a corner of one of the new stands.

"Excuse me, but can you tell me where all of this came from?" The man waved an arm around, indicating that he was talking about the new carnival structures.

"I haven't received any paperwork for anything to be built here. I rent this space to paying renters that I strike a deal with ahead of time, before anything can be placed around here. And I don't remember you."

Mr. Tophat looked at the man without any care at all about his words, but still humored him with a response.

"Ah. Of course, how silly of me to think that all of this would be free.." Mr. Tophat waved his arm around at the space and it's new structures with a slight exaggeration, to mock the actions of the old man. "But I'm afraid I don't have any currency on me at the moment. But.. you could do something for me instead."

The old man looked at this stranger in front of him with the strange pants, shoes, jacket, and the large black top hat on his head. He decided to have no patience for ridiculousness at this moment as it was getting late into the night, and he had just been trying to head home. He took a Walkie-Talkie out of his work jacket and called for his employees that worked for him in a building that was up the street.

"Hey guys, manager here. I need you to come down to the field. We have an issue here."

A voice could be heard coming out of the old man's device, with a crackling static. "Coming boss. We're close by there anyway, from heading on out from work now."

"Oh look, already doing more for me, faster than I expected." Mr. Tophat said, not worried at all by the old man's call for backup.

"Now look, either I'm going to get paid for your use of this space, or my men are going to clear everything out of here."

Mr. Tophat looked up past the old man as he heard a couple of vehicles come to a halt, and six men come into view from the same place the old man had come from. All had serious and stern looks on their faces as they looked around, eyes than looking at their boss.

"What's going on boss?" One of them said.

"This guy thinks he can just put all of this stuff up here in the field without talking to us first." Their boss replied.

The men looked ready to handle the situation aggressively if need be, all just waiting on the strange man's next response to decide what action to take next. Mr. Tophat waited until all the men formed all together in a group first, before taking any action of his own. He took his cane and stepped back a few steps before lifting the cane's top to his eye level, stretching his arm out towards the men in front of him, with the stone piece on top of the cane being closest to them.

"Alright enough playing around, let's settle this.." The boss started to say something to his men, but was interrupted.

"Yes, let's put everything in order right now." Mr.Tophat said. He thought about what he wanted and focused his gaze at the men. He lifted the cane up an inch and than back down again quickly, sending a thin lightening bolt out from the top of the cane to spread out among the men before him. It hit them square in their heads, making them scream out in surprise and pain. They fell to their knees and grabbed their heads waiting for it to stop. When it did the men dropped their arms down by their sides, eyes transfixed into a lost daze now.

"There we are, much better." Mr.Tophat said with a smile. "I thought this would take some time, getting more help together. But all of you saved me a lot of trouble. Now, let's get things going.."

The men were given new outfits befitting the carnival, and were given instructions on what to do, as the new workers to help take care of it. As lights were created and strung about, extra supplies now available, thanks to the supplies and materials the transfixed men now brought from the building they worked at, all seemed well and in order to get the carnival in full operation again. Mr. Tophat walked around his new carnival, pleased with it's new construction. He walked out to the center of the carnival grounds where the lights shown the brightest, and felt a happy familiar feeling about him he hadn't felt in years.

"If only Bartholomew were here to help.." Mr. Tophat thought as he looked around at everything. But his thoughts of the loss of his former collaborator were interrupted by a sudden feeling that he was not alone. A presence that didn't belong to any of the new workers, was now haunting the carnival square. Mr. Tophat stood still and bent his head down, trying to better sense what was around him. He raised his cane to his face, ready to strike at anyone, or anything if needed. But another feeling, one of familiarity came over him, this time connected to a person. The feeling grew intensely strong in a matter of seconds and Mr. Tophat realized who was around. He couldn't see her, but he recognized the feel of her essence. It was like how he had been able to sense her attention in her dreams that he had haunted her in. How had she found him? Mr. Tophat wondered. How had she known to even do so? This confused Mr. Tophat, as he had been the one to find her last time. He was also somewhat annoyed that even just her essence was around him, before the carnival was entirely finished and running. He decided to give her a fright, just enough of one to at least frighten her away for awhile. Without having giving her any hint of knowing that he was alert to her presence, Mr. Tophat turned his gaze quickly to the right side where he felt Rachel's essence lingering near him. He was not sure if she could entirely see him, but he knew the glare he had given along with the sudden movement of his head turn, should have been enough to at least scare her away. And sure enough, Mr. Tophat felt Rachel's essence jerk away back to wherever her body was..

"Soon Rachel." Mr. Tophat said out loud. "Soon we'll have a whole new meeting with each other once again, face to face.."


	3. Chapter 3

Rachel woke up the next morning fully dressed on her bed, having fallen asleep in her clothes that she had been in the night before. She was surprised that she had been able to sleep at all after the nightmare she had drifted off to last night. She looked over at her phone and saw the time it was, when she unlocked it to see if she had received any notifications. Rachel jumped off her bed and hurried to get ready for the day, when she saw what time it was. She had already missed one class so far, and would have to find a classmate to get notes from for it. When she was ready Rachel grabbed her books, school bag, and phone, and ran to her next class. She tried to focus on everything the teacher was explaining about the subject, as she pushed everything else out of her mind. After class she walked to the side of a wall in a hallway and made a phone call to Gavin. He was at work, but as long as he wasn't busy with something important, he was allowed to take short phone calls in a few places that were away from customers in the bookstore. He picked up his phone on the third ring.

"Hey, what's going on?" Gavin answered, knowing who was calling.

"Oh nothing, just making my daily phone call for some conversion." Said Rachel playing with her response.

"So how are classes? Still trying to get a feel for something?"

"Yeah I don't know, I keep trying to give everything a chance. My mom helped me with all the payments for my classes, and I don't want to just leave finding nothing to come from it all, you know?" Rachel sighed.

"Well your trying at least, that counts for something though right?" Gavin asked.

"I guess. I just wish I didn't have to try so hard at it. I mean looking out my window feels more interesting sometimes. And than I saw something.. Rachel stopped short of finishing her sentence as she thought about the strange dark clouds she saw outside her dorm window a few days ago, and the uneasy feeling she had ever since.

"What is it?" Gavin asked, catching the unease in Rachel's voice, not to mention the long pause.

"Nothing, I just.. Iv'e been having nightmares again."

"What kind?"

"The kind where a shadowy figure wearing a certain.. You know what, it's stress. I'm sure it's just stress bringing me to a dark place in my head. It's fine, it's fine, I just need to breath and take some walks outside more, and just relax." Rachel said, trying not to create a panic. She still wasn't completely sure if anything really bad was actually happening, or if her mind was just releasing some worry, with past fears and experiences.

"Are you sure, you sound concerned.. you know what would be good? You and me having a night out. I have only a few hours to work at the end of this week. You could meet me at the bookstore, and we could go out to dinner, or something. Friday night, sound good?" Gavin offered.

"Sounds great. I could use something to look forward to." Rachel felt a weight lift off of her shoulders as soon as she finished the sentence.

"Alright, I'll see you here then." Gavin said happily. "I gotta go, a shipment just arrived for the store. I need to see how to handle something with the inventory. Are you sure your alright?"

"I'll be fine. I only have one more class today. I'll get by." Rachel said, not feeling too sure about that last part.

"Okay, take it easy, and I'll see you in a few days."

"Alright see you than." Rachel hung up her phone and continued to her next class. Despite having slept longer than usual the night before, she felt sleepy and started to yawn. All throughout her next class she struggled to not node off, running her hands through her hair and shaking her head to stay alert. After she got out of class Rachel got a light dinner in the school's cafeteria, before going to her dorm room. She had slept through breakfast and had only a quick snack bar for lunch that she had bought out of a vending machine, but she still hadn't felt too hungry. In her room Rachel set her bag and books down and looked in her mirror, as she sat down in the chair in front of the desk that it rested upon. Her eyes looked tired and her face was pale. Rachel took a deep breath and put her hands to her face, slightly rubbing her eyes. When she took them away Rachel looked back at her mirror and took another deep breath in, unexpectedly..

Behind her face in the mirror was the frame of another one. It was so suttle that her tired vision barely caught it. On top of the frame of the other face, sat a mop of blondish-brown curls, resembling hair. Rachel slowly bent forward towards the mirror, breathing shallow. Her confused eyes squinted as she tried to make out more of the image in the mirror. The shape of a nose could be seen now that Rachel was closer. As she got just an inch away from the mirror, Rachel started to see the shape of the nose had a mouth underneath it, and a chin. As her eyes moved slowly back up, she saw that at the top of the nose and underneath the mop of hair and a space of forehead that was just beneath that, what looked like the two shapes of a pair of eyelids could be made out. Rachel sat frozen, eyes wide, and barely breathing. The more she stared, the more that Rachel could see that all of the shapes and features that she was seeing all together, now formed one whole face. And a pretty familiar one, that she had more than once wished to never see again.

Rachel started to slowly move back away from the mirror. As she did, the two eyelids she was looking at sprang open, and two green irises stared out at her. Rachel stood up so fast away from the mirror that she knocked over the chair behind her she had been sitting in. As she did so she took in a huge gulp of air instead of letting out a scream, as she barely had any oxygen gathered in her lungs. The ringtone from Rachel's phone suddenly went off, distracting her eyes from the mirror to her phone on her bed. Rachel looked over for a moment trying to call herself back to where she was at, away from the terror she saw in the mirror. After a couple of seconds of realizing what the sound that broke her sight in front of the mirror was, Rachel quickly turned her head back to the mirror, horrified of what she might see. But all she saw now was just her own reflection. She dared to go towards the mirror and take another close look. She put a hand up to the glass and pressed it with her fingers lightly at first, than a little harder, after she moved her hand back for a few seconds when she touched it the first time. Nothing was there except a plain mirror, nothing behind Rachel's image of her face, everything was solid. Rachel moved back carefully to go to her phone to answer it, keeping an eye on her mirror the whole time..

In his trailer Mr. Tophat moved back from his own mirror that sat upon his dresser, and sat fully upright against the back of his chair. His hands rested on top of the dresser, that were placed on either side of him. He looked at his mirror and his image in it. It was just him now, but seconds earlier he shared a reflection with his intended recepient of the homing spell he had used his cane to place on the person he was looking for. He hadn't been sure if she was still at the same place he figured her to be last, but although she seemed to be in a new room and location, Rachel was still back at what Mr. Tophat remembered was her new hometown..

"Soon Rachel.." Mr. Tophat said looking at the mirror still, after the spell had worn off. He had caught a long enough glimpse of Rachel to recognize her face, despite the slight changes in her more grown form. The feel of the area she was in had also come to him, after he had concentrated for a moment before seeing her.

"Very, very soon, I'll be there." He said, as he leaned forward on his dresser, putting his hands together.

"Now Iv'e found YOU..."


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel answered her phone, barely checking to see who was calling. The call ended up being a FaceTime with Akiko..

"Hey girl, just calling to tell you about a deal I scored with an independent film producer. Looks like my film's are gonna go to higher places!" Akiko seemed ecstatic, but kept her usual confident demeanor as she spoke, which always made it clear to whoever was around her that this kind of amazing turn out was always going to happen for her, when she spoke about her work. Of course the attitude she always held up first to everyone whenever she spoke, also helped everyone to understand that nothing less than success was meant for her.

"I'm putting this news out no matter if people are still awake, or not!" She continued. "So.. What the heck is up with your face?" Akiko asked, after stopping to actually take a look at Rachel for a moment, while slightly squinting.

Rachel who had been looking back and forth from her mirror to her phone, had her hand on the side of her neck, trying to soothe her anxiety. She had heard what Akiko had said, but the reality of what the words that she had spoken brought, were completely lost to Rachel at the moment.

"Huh?" Rachel responded back, while looking at her mirror.

"Oh man, did you not listen to anything I just said?" Akiko said from the phone, temporarily forgetting about Rachel's condition.

"Oh sorry, I.." Rachel tried to answer, finally looking at Akiko through her phone.

"Akiko do you remember those Nightmares I used to have about Mr. Tophat and the carnival, when I first got here and met you guys?" Rachel asked Akiko.

"Yeah, and than we helped you take him and the carnival out." Akiko recalled.

"Well, Iv'e been having them again."

"What, the same nightmares? Why, he's gone."

"I know but.. I don't know, something's wrong. I'm having the nightmares again, visions have returned, and I'm seeing things that all remind me of him again." Rachel finally admitted.

"Of Mr. Tophat?" Akiko said, now back to being more concerned about Rachel, than her news.

"Yeah. I thought maybe that I was just stressed about school, but something else is happening."

"Okay, that's it!" Akiko said loudly. "You know what? We need to all have a reunion. We've all been away from each other for awhile now, and now crazy stuff is happening again!"

Despite being grateful to hear it, Rachel couldn't help feeling guilty about pulling her friends into her troubles.

"Akiko that doesn't need to happen, really." Rachel protested.

"No, too late, already going to send out invitations.. HEY! Put that back I'm still using it for production!" Akiko cried out to a stage hand, as she ignored Rachel's protest. Turning back to Rachel after yelling at the stage hand, Akiko finished up by saying, "Expect to hear from us soon, I gotta go take care of some things here and go tell Graham, I'll probably run into him out of his classes later, as I do."

"Alright." Rachel said, giving in to Akiko's stubbornness. There really wasn't any stopping her most of the the time, when she had an idea.

"Okay cool, see ya." Akiko left off, as she hung up.

As Rachel's phone screen went black, she looked around her room and felt nothing but uncomfortable at the quietness and strong loneliness she felt now. She dialed a number on her phone and steadied herself, to keep from sounding panicked.

"Hi, Mom." Rachel said, trying to sound like her usual self as the phone picked up on the other end.

"Oh hi, sweetie." Rachel's mom said happily. "What's going on, how were classes today?"

"Fine, better." Rachel lied. "Hey Mom, can I sleep over at the house tonight?"

"Oh.. Sure honey, is everything ok?" Rachel's mom asked in a concerned voice.

"Everything's fine. I just miss being home, I just want a kind of get away for tonight. Let's make dinner together, or something."

"Oh good, I was just about to start fixing something for dinner. Do you want me to pick you up?"

"Sure, if you could. It would save me some expense for a ride." Rachel said, half-heartedly throwing in as much of a normal, little playful laugh at the end, as she could muster.

"Alright sweetie, be there in half an hour, see you soon.."

After Rachel's mom hung up, Rachel went to her closet and pulled out a large duffel bag. She started to pull some clothes off of hangers and into the duffel bag, hardly caring about which clothes went in. She moved out of the closet after, putting the bag on the floor outside and under her desk, and ran her arms over the desk top, which held her now seemingly image free mirror on it. She kept her head down trying not to look back into the mirror, as she swept her hairbrush, small amount of make-up, and a small pouch containing toiletries like her toothbrush and toothpaste into the bag with her clothing. She left her back pack with her school and notebooks, and folders inside, on the ground near her bed and shut off the light to her dorm room, locking it as she left. Rachel went from her room on the second floor, to the first floor of the building she was in at the college. She leaned on the wall near the doors to go outside, watching the street just past the sidewalk for the sight of her mother's car, as other students that shared the residence with Rachel in the building came to settle down for the evening. As soon as Rachel saw her mother's car outside she went out to her quickly, happy to see any other familiar face that she had known for awhile that could be around her, that didn't belong to anyone she should fear.

"Hey Sweetie, how are you?" Asked Rachel's mom again when she got into the car and shut the door quickly. "Are you sure your going to be okay with not being at school for tonight? No classes going on too early for tomorrow?"

"No, none happening too early at all, only a couple of classes close to the evening tomorrow," Rachel lied again.

"Really."

"Please Mom, I just need a small break at home. School will be fine."

"Alright then.." Rachel's mom pulled out of the school grounds and onto the street going home.

When they got to the house, Rachel got through the door and breathed in a huge breath. It was nice to smell the usual scent of her home. For awhile now her mom had begun to hang lace baggies of light scented leaf and flower combinations around the house. It smelled of a nice, open tea shop, or cafe. It felt nice, warm, cozy, and safe. Even though Rachel had been visited by Mr. Tophat before here, it had been years ago, and so Rachel put the thought of that happening again out of her mind quickly and went to go put her bag up in her old room, as her mom went to pull some supplies together to start to get dinner ready. Upstairs Rachel put her bag on her old bed, and immediately pulled a blanket out of the closet that was across from the foot of her bed, and threw it over her old body length mirror. She went to her duffle bag and unzipped it to unload her things, and found her gaze slowly look up to the ceiling. Between the mirror and her old ceiling, both things that were now connected to HIM being around her, Rachel began to feel uneasy again. She picked up her bag and left her room, going down the hallway to a guest room in the house that was never used. She opened the door and put her bag on the floor of the room before striping the bed of an old sheet that had been covering it. She went back to her room and to her closet, taking out some sheets, a pillow, and another blanket. She went back to the guest room and dressed the guest bed with her cleaner sheets and pillow. It was nothing but an old bed with a somewhat torn old mattress on top of springs, but it would do for the night. She put some of her things from her bag on top of an old dresser her mom kept in the room, just in case she needed it one day, and went back downstairs. Before she had gotten to the steps, Rachel had made sure to close the door to her old room as she passed it, looking in quickly to also make sure that her window was closed.

Downstairs her mom was already starting the cooking. "Everything okay up there?" She asked Rachel.

"Yeah, just thought I'd change the sheets in my bed for tonight." Rachel told her.

"Oh sorry, I have been keeping up with dusting around the house, including your room, but I haven't changed out your bed sheets for awhile.."

"It's okay, I got it." Rachel told her mom reassuringly.

Rachel and her mom made dinner and when they were done eating and talking about small things together, Rachel said she would do the dishes so her mom could get ready for bed.

"Are you sure honey?"

"Sure Mom Iv'e been waiting to hear from some friends, it's not too late, and there's not very many dishes to do anyway."

"Oh alright, I'll see you in the morning then. Sleep tight." Rachel's mom gave her a kiss on the cheek and went upstairs.

Even though she also didn't mind helping to clean up, doing the dishes was mainly an excuse for something to do to help keep Rachel busy, and help her stay up longer. Rachel didn't want to sleep for too long that night. She didn't trust her mind to be clear of any bizzare thoughts, or dreams while she slept. The less amount of sleep she got and only needed for now, the better. Rachel was in fact though expecting to find at least one message, or two on her phone from any of her group of friends. She made sure to check on that at least once before heading upstairs to bed as well, after she finished the dishes. Upstairs Rachel stepped quietly going past her mom's room to not wake her, and was quiet as she got ready for bed in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and washing her face. Rachel went to the end of the hall and opened the door to the guest room, slowly closing the door behind her as she went in, making sure not to let the knob on the door make too much noise as it clicked into place after being let go. She changed into her bed clothes and was about to climb into bed, when Rachel heard a small sound. It sounded as soft as a small rustle of leaves outside, but sounded like it carried a word.

"Rachel.."

Rachel clutched the blanket in her hand that she was pulling back from the bed. She thought for a moment that her mind was being paranoid. The sound was nothing more than like thinking that maybe an alarm was going off somewhere far outside, than realizing that it was just one of your ears that had been softly ringing. That was until the sound happened again, and a little more clearly this time.

"..Rraacheeell.." A voice softly rang out.

That was definitely a word, and it was definitely her name. Rachel looked around, turning to look quickly behind her, than to the door of the room. Nothing was around her. And nothing was in the room that anyone could hide in, or behind. Rachel moved away from the bed quickly, and looked underneath it, ready to run for the door to the room. But nothing was there under the bed, either. Than a new breath of fresh air entered her lungs. The scent was fresh and cooler than what she had been breathing in the house. Rachel got up from looking underneath the bed and looked over at a window with red drapes that was across the room from her. She didn't remember there ever being a window in this room. But than she had only been in this room once before today. But still, why hadn't she noticed it before, earlier? Rachel walked slowly over to the window and hesitated for a few seconds, before lifting her arm and sliding her fingers in between the middle of the curtains, to pull aside one of them to look outside. Rachel poked her head through and looked out the window.

Nothing but moonlight and soft yellow lights from the streetlights hit the ground outside, and the homes that were around the neighborhood. Nothing else past them in the darkness could be seen. Rachel started to slowly pull her head back away from the window, when a gold glimmer of something caught her eye. She moved her head back towards the window for a better look. As she stared the glimmer of gold focused into a shiny object, connected to a long stick. A man in a red suit top suddenly appeared in the window from behind Rachel, the flash of his quick appearing reflection startling Rachel back away from the window, and into something soft and solid right behind her. Rachel swirled around to see the palm of a black gloved hand being placed on her face. In shock and unable to scream, Rachel fell helplessly backwards and through the window behind her, as she was harshly shoved. As she started to fall towards the ground her eyes looking up above her, Rachel saw the man at the window looking down watching her falling beneath him, wearing a smile that made him seem triumphant of something. As she hit the ground instead of feeling the hard earth, Rachel saw herself fall through the soil before hitting something soft again with her back..

Rachel's eyes flew open, now looking straight up at the guest room's ceiling. Sweating and breathing fast, she sat up in bed trying to catch her breath. She turned her head and looked at the wall where the window was. Nothing was there now, except a blank wall. Rachel sat up and looked at her phone that had been laying next to her on the bed. When she checked the time, she had only been asleep for a few hours. All she could remember before the dream was laying in bed for awhile, before drifting off. Getting out of bed, Rachel leaned against the wall across from the one that had the window in it in the dream. She slid down the wall and sat down on the floor, not wanting to go back to bed to sleep, or to try and not look up at the ceiling, expecting to see HIM again. When at least seven am came around, Rachel got up off the floor and went to go shower and get dressed. She was out of the bathroom and downstairs before her mom got up and could see her coming out of the guest room at all. She started breakfast, getting herself into as much of a seemingly restful mood as she could bring about herself, so her mom wouldn't feel the need to ask questions about why she seemed so tired, and upset about something. When her mom came downstairs, Rachel picked up a plate with toast and eggs on it, along with putting on a forced, cheery smile.

"Hey mom, morning!" Rachel held up the plate, offering her mom a slice of toast.

"Morning, sweetie." Rachel's mom said, giving her a kiss on the cheek, and getting a piece of toast from the plate. She looked at Rachel for bit as she chewed on a piece of her toast. "Did you get enough sleep honey, you look tired.."

"Oh, I stayed up a little later than usual, just appreciating being home." Rachel came up with quickly, hoping to look believable.

"Ohhhhh." Rachel's mom said, giving her a hug. "I missed you being here, too. Maybe you can spend some longer time here soon, than just overnight.."

"Yeah, that would be great. Maybe when I get a long break in classes at school." Rachel replied.

After breakfast Rachel and her mom started to clean up the kitchen together, until the doorbell suddenly rang at the front door.

"I'll get it." Rachel said heading to the front door, as her mom looked confused about who it could be.

Rachel looked out the peep hole in the door and stepped back, not believing her eyes. She looked back up into the peep hole one more time, before going to reach for the door knob. When she opened the door and pulled it back, Akiko leaned against the door frame arms crossed, giving Rachel an irritated look. As Rachel looked over Akiko's shoulder for a moment after hearing some noise behind her, she saw Graham pulling on a small suitcase out of a taxi that was parked in front of the house. He was turning it this way and that way in the trunk, trying to pry it from some bags that it was lodged in between, the taxi driver looking somewhat annoyed as he watched Graham struggle with the luggage, looking up in the rear view mirror.

"Well?" Said Akiko, bringing Rachel's attention back to her. "Did you check your phone at all today? We went to your school after we got off the plane thinking you would at least be there when you didn't answer your phone, and that we could go check up on you before going to go see where to stay. We finally decided to come here after knocking on the door of your dorm room, and asking some people in your building if they had seen you."

"Sorry, I guess I left my phone upstairs." Rachel said, trying to look as apologetic as she felt.

Akiko rolled her eyes, uncrossed her arms, and than moved forward, giving Rachel a hello-friend hug. "Well, glad that you sound a little better than you did last night, even though you look kinda drained right now." She said after stepping back away from Rachel, looking at her again. "So you gonna let us in, or what?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Oh, sorry." Rachel said, as she stepped back away from the door.

Before she went inside to the house Akiko turned and got some of the bags off of Graham that he was trying to carry to the door, some of the bags his, some of them Akiko's.

"Did you pay the taxi driver?" Akiko asked Graham as she lifted her bags off of him.

"He's gone, isn't he?" Graham replied huffing a little, and getting a better hold of his bags as Akiko took hers, as she looked over to the side of Graham at the now empty street behind him.

Akiko and Graham went inside to the house, putting their bags down near the doorway of the living room before sitting down on the couch, further in. Rachel's mom hearing voices from the kitchen, came up from behind Rachel who was standing in the doorway of the living room, trying to figure out where to start with what to say to her long time, now visiting friends.

"Oh, hi you guys.." Rachel's mom said, surprised. "What are you doing in town?"

"Hey, Ms. Carpenter." Akiko said to her, half raising her hand to wave, Graham doing the same thing with one of his hands, and letting out a small, "Hey."

"They're just stopping by, taking a break from school for a few days." Rachel answered for them.

"Well it's nice that they get to see you before you have to go to your classes later. Let me get everyone something to drink.." Rachel's mom left the room, and headed back to the kitchen.

"Sooo.. Your mom still in the dark about everything with, "You-know-who?" Akiko asked Rachel, doing quotation marks with her hands.

"Well I can't tell her.." Rachel said, keeping her voice down. "She wouldn't understand at all, seeing how she was never able to remember anything involving any carnival at all. I didn't even tell her about any of the nightmares I used to get, before we even came to live here from our old hometown."

"So, he is back than?" Graham asked, looking nervous.

Rachel looked over at Akiko feeling like she had been somewhat snitched on with what was happening with her and her recent, somewhat personal conversation with Akiko, on the phone the night before.

"What?!" Akiko said a little too loudly, putting her hands up in the air. "I had to say something to everyone. How else was I supposed to get everyone to try and get here so quickly?"

"So everyone knows about the nightmares coming back about Mr. Tophat."

"Not everyone, just the MS members of course."

"Is everyone coming back here for a reunion?"

"I tried to get all the members back here by this weekend, but so far only me and Graham were able to make it right away. Adam said he's got too many cases of animal appointments with pets and their owners coming into an animal hospital that he's visiting for his studies, Louise said she would try and find time and a flight over here even with the reunion being so unexpected, and Gavin said he was busy till Friday, and that you two had something planned. So how are you two, still trying to be an awesome couple?"

"We're mostly apart because of work and school, but we try and find time for each other when we can. We have a lot of phone conversations at least." Rachel said, trying to sound cheery towards the end of her sentence.

"Wow, so exciting." Akiko said sarcastically. "So what's happening with the nightmares? Are they quick, or does a lot happen, is Tophat there a lot, or just a litttle?.."

"He's there a lot." Rachel started. "At first I visited the carnival that seemed to be there again in the woods. Than I saw him in my mirror at school. Or I think I did. It was faint, but I could see a face that looked like his behind mine. It's been happening for a couple of days now. The face that was in the mirror, I was tired, but I was awake. I could have been imagining things, but it seemed really real. And now last night.. I still couldn't see him clearly but, I knew it was him. There were the gloves, the red suit jacket, the hat.. And his voice. It was the same voice I remember him always having. He was calling me over to a window."

"What happened?" Graham asked in a low voice, looking spooked.

"He pushed me out the window, while I was looking outside of it. I fell through to the ground, and than passed it, waking up in the bed I was in. I had slept in the guest room to try and keep from thinking about him at all here. But even being away from school and being here in my house didn't stop the nightmares and visions from happening."

"Whoa." Graham said, looking away.

Akiko stayed looking at Rachel for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly to say. "So.. I guess we're not going to be able to stay here until we go back."

"Really?!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Don't worry, we're going to stay at my parents house for a few days. They're off visiting a relative of mine. The house will be empty." Graham stepped in. Maybe if you want, you could come stay with us for a few days while we're here."

"That actually might be a good idea. I told my mom that I was going to some classes back at school later. But I really don't want to go back there yet."

"Here we go.." Rachel's mom said, bringing in a tray of drinks to the living room. "I have some nice sun tea that has some cinnamon, ginger, and a bit of mint in it. There's also some fruit slices I cut up and put on the rim. I don't add too much sugar, it's not too healthy. But you can add a squeeze of the fruit slice from the rims of your glasses if you want."

"Thanks." Graham said as he took a glass. He took a tea drink which he thought had an orange slice on the rim, Rachel got the glass with the slice of watermelon, and Akiko took a glass with a lemon slice on the rim. Rachel took a drink of her tea and a bite of her watermelon slice after. Akiko took a small sip from her glass, testing the taste. Graham decided to squeeze some of his orange into his tea first before taking a drink, and regretted it immediately. His "orange" slice was not an orange, but a slice of grapefruit. He automatically spit the tea back into the glass after taking one gulp, trying not to drop the glass as he did.

"Oh I'm sorry Graham, is that too bitter? I ran out of oranges so I thought a nice grapefruit would do."

"It's.. fine." Graham gasped out, awhile coughing and wiping his mouth.

A repeated bell sound started to ring throughout the house than, signaling someone was at the front door.

"I'll get it." Rachel said again. "It might be another.. friend." She paused for a moment, stopping just before accidentally blurting out, about it possibly being another M.S. Member.

Rachel opened the front door and found Gavin standing behind it.

"Gavin?" Rachel said, surprised. "What are you doing here, I thought you had to work?"

"I did. But when I got Akiko's texts about the reunion, and more talk about the nightmares happening again, I made an excuse that I had to go care for a family member that needed me."

Despite being grateful for his support, Rachel gave Gavin a slight defensive look adding, "I'm not exactly helpless you know."

"I know, but still, you've been having a hard time. And now the M.S. gang is here in town all together again, I want be here."

"Well not everyone is here, but thanks for coming for me, first." Rachel said, moving forward and giving Gavin a kiss.

"Hey you two lip locking on the doorstep, wanna come inside? I don't think Iv'e seen you in a while." Rachel's mom said, having come from around the corner from the living room, and speaking to Gavin after, when she saw who rang the doorbell.

"Hi, Ms. Carpenter." Gavin said. "It has been awhile since Iv'e visited. How have you been?"

"Oh just fine, how are you? Your father still single?"

"MOM!" Rachel said loudly.

Gavin chuckled while Rachel's mom replied, "Oh fine, so you want something to drink Gavin?"

"No, I'm alright." Gavin said, aware of the somewhat bitter tea that was usually served.

"Alright, well let me know if anyone needs anything, I'll be in the kitchen." Rachel's mom turned and headed off to the kitchen, to finish cleaning up.

"Always fun visiting here." Gavin said, trying not to laugh more.

"Ugh.." Rachel sighed, rolling her eyes as her and Gavin headed to the living room.

"Gavin, you showed!" Akiko said at least half amused, when she saw Gavin enter the living room.

"Hey guys, did you have a nice trip here?"

"It was okay. Luckily me and Akiko were able to get seats almost next to each other, so we weren't completely sitting next to strangers. But there was a woman that was sitting in between us that fell asleep during the flight, and kept snoring on and off the whole way here." Graham said.

"Oh man, so seriously annoying." Akiko followed up.

"So what has everyone been talking about over here?" Gavin asked.

"About Rachel's nightmares and visions, how she's having them everywhere." Akiko answered.

"Even in the house?" Gavin asked, looking at Rachel.

"Yeah. I'm not sure what's going on, Iv'e been seeing things everywhere. It's like Mr. Tophat has come back as some kind of a ghost with a vengeance." Rachel said, feeling a bit spooked as she said that last part outloud.

"So you have any classes that your going to today?"

"No, I don't feel like going back to school right now, but my mom thinks I'm going back later today."

"Okay, so we'll just go somewhere else, give you a break from there."

"It's alright, she's coming with us for a couple of days. She can call her school and tell them she has to be away for awhile." Akiko said, letting Gavin in on the arrangement.

"Ah, good." Gavin said, surprised by the quick news. "I have to go to a warehouse real quick that the store has here. I was supposed to go at least by the end of the day. I just need to get inside to the office they have there with my key, and type in how many boxes of book shipments we got in. It's real important, I'm surprised my manager didn't ask about it before I left."

"Okay, I guess we better go then, before he calls you back to the bookstore." Rachel said.

Akiko and Graham got up from the couch and started to head towards the front door with Rachel and Gavin, stopping to pick up their bags along the way. Rachel's mom hearing all the moving footsteps, came out from the kitchen, a dish drying towel in one of her hands.

"Everyone heading out so soon?" She asked.

"Sorry mom thanks for the tea drinks, but if I want to get back to school later, than we better get going. I want to help Akiko and Graham get settled in, back at his parent's house. They'll be staying there while they're visiting for a few days."

"Alright, but call me if you need anything."

"Okay.. OH, wait!" Rachel said, before she was just about to step out the front door. "I have to get my bag from upstairs, I'll be right out." She told Akiko, Gavin, and Graham.

"Okay, we'll go load the bags into my car." Gavin replied.

Rachel hurried upstairs and went to the guest room and quickly put all of her things back into her duffel bag, from the dresser. She pulled off the sheets and pillow from the bed and threw the old sheet back on the old mattress. She picked up the sheets with the pillow and went to her room opening her closet, and quickly folding the sheets and blanket before putting them back into the closet with the pillow. Rachel just hoped that her mom wouldn't remember what the sheets looked like that were on the bed in her room, which would cause confusion if her mom came up to her bedroom for some reason, since Rachel had said she had changed the old sheets in her bed in there last night. She went back downstairs and said goodbye to her mom, as she went outside to Gavin's car. A couple of the bags that belonged to Akiko and Graham were being placed into the trunk, and than it was shut. Everyone got inside the car, Akiko and Graham in the back seats, and Rachel and Gavin in the front. They drove off, making a bit of small talk on the way.

"So, boss let's you have the special warehouse key huh? Guess someone's doing good.." Akiko told Gavin.

"It's just what you get as someone who has to help keep count of how many books and stuff we get in. Of course I had to be good enough at the store to be able to get to that advancement. I mainly just helped out the manager keep inventory while I interned. Now I get paid for helping with inventory, and helping out the customers."

"I bet you show people the good stuff though right?" Graham told Gavin, half playing around.

"You mean all the scary storytelling books and stuff? You know it." Gavin replied to the backseat.

They pulled up to the warehouse, and locked the car behind them as Gavin unlocked the warehouse front door, letting everyone in. The warehouse looked like a gigantic room, the size of a couple of gymnasiums put together with giant metal shelves holding large cardboard boxes on them. On the far right end where a forklift could be seen off to the side, was a small inner room with blinds in the windows and a door.

"That's the office." Gavin said, as he pointed at the room in the corner. "You can look around but be careful, I just need around five minutes to look at a list and make sure everything is in order before I put the results into the computer."

Gavin headed to the office and unlocked the door heading in, as everyone else started to look around. Akiko and Graham went to look at the shelves at the left side of the warehouse and discuss about how strong they must be made, in order to be able to hold so many large boxes of books. Rachel never having seen the bookstore's warehouse before either and just the bookstore, walked past the metal shelves and boxes towards the back, and saw how there were shelves that were smaller like the metal shelves you would find in someone's garage. As she got closer Rachel saw that the books were put on the shelves, front covers facing forward. She got to the very back wall where she saw a book with a dark burgundy cover and a gold foiled oval on the front. In the oval there was a dark picture that had some kind of image that couldn't clearly be seen. Rachel felt pulled towards it, yawning as she went to look at the cover more closely. She shook her head back and forth trying to shake the sleepiness she felt off, and looked into the darkness of the picture. Her head feeling dizzy she started to see what looked like the dark inside of a truck, a dark silhouette sitting in the seat of it. A glow began to surround the inside of the oval on the book, growing stronger until it reached the center of the oval, revealing a top body figure that Rachel recognized all too well, the head raising slowly up from being bent down, the top of a dark hat that was on the head, moving up towards the ceiling of the truck. Two cold eyes looked out from beneath the rim of the hat, followed by a nose, than a flat mouth that held no smile. Rachel moved back so fast that she backed up against the metal shelves behind her. As she gained her steadiness, trying not to knock over the shelves as she moved back away from them, she turned around and caught sight of a book with the same face on the cover that she just tried to get away from.

"I'll be there soon.." Mr. Tophat said, the book cover fading to darkness, after he spoke.

Rachel screamed and ran around the end of the shelf, heading back to the middle of the warehouse. Before she even got there, Akiko and Graham had come around to the end of the long aisle that Rachel had went down, before she had turned into the one where the books were. When Rachel got close enough Akiko put her hands on Rachel's shoulders and asked what was wrong. "He's there, he's over there on the books, on the shelves!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Who's there?"

"HIM! Mr. Tophat!"

Nervous and scared, Graham pulled up enough of his courage to go down the long aisle and into the smaller one that Rachel had come from, to take a look. When he got there he saw the disheveled books on the shelves as he looked back and forth. On the other side of the warehouse, Gavin came out of the office and ran over to where Rachel and Akiko stood.

"What's wrong?"

Rachel pointed over to the aisle she was at trying to explain what happened clearly while panicking, Graham walking quickly back to everyone as she rambled.

"I didn't see anything." He said.

"Okay I'm done in the office, take Rachel out to the car and I'll be out right behind you, after I lock up real quick."

Gavin ran back to the office and shut off the computer inside, coming out and locking the office door behind him. He ran to the warehouse door entrance after, and locked the door to the warehouse, after he stepped out. Akiko and Graham were on either side of Rachel calming her, as they waited for Gavin to unlock the car doors. When he did Akiko got into the back seat next to Rachel, and Graham got into the passenger seat in the front. Gavin started the car and drove off from the warehouse's parking lot carefully and quickly, heading off to Graham's parents house. Gavin helped Graham get the bags out of the trunk of the car and into the house when they got there, as Akiko guided Rachel into the house and upstairs to the bathroom. She put a wet, cool wash cloth on Rachel's face, leaving it for a few seconds on her either side of her cheeks, before resting it against her forehead.

"Okay, just continue to breath slowly.. It's going to be fine, we're all going to be downstairs together in the same room, right next to each other for the rest of the day and night." Akiko told Rachel, still trying to put her at ease. "I'm going to go find something cool for you to drink again, come downstairs when your ready, okay?"

Rachel nodded her head and put her hand to her forehead to hold the wash cloth, as Akiko let go of it and left the bathroom. From her view looking out of the bathroom doorway, Rachel saw Akiko walk to the staircase and down it's steps, out of sight. She continued to breath calmly, closing her eyes for a moment, trying not to continue to panic. But a thought came back to her that made that kind of difficult. It was what Mr. Tophat has said from the book. "He'll be where soon?" She whispered to herself. A loud thump could be heard downstairs, like something fell over. Rachel looked back to the stairs from the wash cloth she had been holding and looking down at, while thinking about what had just happened at the warehouse. She walked out of the bathroom, wash cloth falling to the ground as her fingers unconsciously let go of it, as Rachel went to go see what the sound was. She walked over to the stairs and began to walk down them, hanging onto the railing. She saw Graham laying on the ground in the kitchen, looking like maybe he might be reaching for something under the oven he was next to.

She didn't see Akiko, but maybe she was further in the kitchen. Rachel was just about to call out to Graham, when she looked down closer to her and saw Gavin laying face first on the ground, a couple of the bags laying next to him, almost right beneath the stairs. She stopped for a second in shock, than started to move faster down the stairs. A couple of steps past the middle of the staircase Rachel felt more tired and sleepy than she ever had before. She started to stumble, catching herself on the bars underneath the railing of the stairs as she sunk down to them. Her head was dizzy and her vision was becoming blurry. Rachel looked around trying to get her eyes to focus, when her vision caught a sparkley vision of something right in front of her at the front door of the house, just five feet from the end of the stairs. Blurry figures came through the open entrance behind the sparkely image which was now giving Rachel a panic attack, as she had a feeling of WHO that sparkely image was. She started to breath fast as she concentrated on just trying to put one steady foot on the next step in front of her to stand up, or to start pushing herself backwards up the stairs to get away. But as she did a form of vertigo came over her, and she sat down hard on the step underneath her, losing the small amount of lift that she had been able to manage to get her body up from the stairs. Her hands became weak and they loosened their grip on the bars she was hanging on to. She started to fall back sideways, her fingers slowly letting go of the bars as her body fell across the step she was on. Unbalanced, Rachel started to roll down the rest of the stairs until she hit the bottom where the floor was, and rolled a few feet across. Her body stopped as her rolling ended with her landing face up, her body sprawled out, her eyes unable to open. As she lay there in disorientation, Rachel could feel footsteps slowly walking towards her. They stopped close to her and she could feel the presence of someone now hovering over her. The last thing Rachel heard as she blacked out completely on the floor, was a very familiar voice saying to her, "Oh Rachel, trying to stay awake won't help you now..."


	6. Chapter 6

Rachel opened her eyes to a very dark ceiling and a dim lit room. She sat up and looked around at an environment she didn't recognize. There were costumes, scarves and wigs hanging on small hooks that were on strongly taped straps on the four walls around her. The walls Rachel saw were all made of a type of fabric that were tied to big, long metal nails that had been hammered into the ground. She was in a small tent she realized, and was on a cot in the middle of the tent. She got up out of the cot still feeling half asleep as she walked over to the tent's opening, a flap of tent fabric that hung over the entrance. Small streams of light came through from the sides of the flap where the lights from the outside shown through. Rachel pushed the flap to the side and walked out of the tent she was in. It was dark outside. She began to walk towards a lit up area to her left, realizing where she was as she continued to look around. More tents were around, with strings of lights stretching across overhead. Everything was eerily silent, with not a single person in sight. As Rachel's head began to clear up she had already walked past the first of the two tents that were at her left. On her right were more tents, one slightly smaller than the one she had come out of, and one big one that looked like it housed a couple of vehicles, as Rachel could see tires past the half inch of space that the tent was off the ground of. She had bent down just long enough to get a quick look underneath, and now she was beginning to get an understanding of how she had got to where she was, after remembering Mr. Tophat riding in the front of a truck on the book cover in the warehouse, saying he was coming soon.

"No, no it can't be happening again.." Rachel said to herself, looking all around her.

She saw no one around still, until she looked forward again towards the lit up area she had been walking to until now. Than she felt two strong hands grip around her upper arms, on either side. Rachel looked back and forth to see two men in colorful suits holding her, that now forcefully pulled her to keep moving towards the lit up area in front of her. She wasn't strong enough to pull away from the two men whom she noticed did not seem fully conscious but in an inner hold, as they didn't respond at all to her pleas to them about releasing her, and moved almost like robots compliaing with whatever instructions they were given. They took her to the lit area that was around the last tent on the left, and stopped in front of a long rolled out red carpet, that led to a large stand that was painted red with small, yellow light bulbs that stuck out from the top. A small stage was out in front of the stand with black steps leading down to the carpet. But most noticeably was the darkened doorway in the middle of the stand. It was just dark empty space, but clearly meant for something, or SOMEONE to be seen in it, maybe soon. Nothing else was around except for four very large red squares that were aligned along the carpet, two on each side. Rachel looked back to the dark doorway in the middle of the stand and felt her heart rate go up, as the very familiar figure she had been seeing, began to emerge through the entrance. Rachel froze as she relived her most terrified nightmare as Mr. Tophat once again, walked through that dark entrance, looking every bit as much as she remembered him to be, with the red velvet suit jacket on top of a black dress shirt and tie, white striped sequined pants, black boots and gloves.. And of course, his large, black Tophat sitting on his head. And the cane. The one Rachel had completely destroyed, or so she thought. It was smaller now at the top, but it was still sitting there, that dark honey colored gem on top of a long, black cane stick, just like before. Mr. Tophat walked to the end of the stage and stopped right before the black steps. He stood legs together, arms in front of him, one hand placed over the other, both resting on top of the cane as it rested on the stand's stage, held firmly in place by Mr. Tophat. The two men holding Rachel jerked her forward by her arms and pulled her down the carpet, partially dragging her as she tried desperately to stop and pull away from them harder than she had tried to before. The whole time she kept her eyes on Mr. Tophat as he kept his eyes on her, with no expression on his face as he waited for Rachel to be brought to him. The men stopped close to the front of the steps of the stage and held Rachel to the spot as Mr. Tophat descended the steps slowly, still looking straight at Rachel, holding the cane right below the hilt with his left hand. He stopped a foot away from Rachel, tilting his head a bit to the side as he smiled big, and said the only other line that Rachel knew him by more than any other;

"Hello Rachel, welcome to the show."

Rachel shook her head back and forth still unable to believe that HE was here in front of her not hurt, or old at all, but healthy and strong looking. Mr.Tophat stepped closer to Rachel and cupped her chin with his right hand.

"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel.." He said playfully, mocking an adoring expression as he put his face close to hers. "For years I hid away in the woods thinking about what happened last between us, how you threw everything away I offered to you, how you could have been so helpful to my life, how I offered to you a way out to be safe forever with your friends. How I had to survive as such a small creature under dirt and rocks, eating insects, not knowing what was going to happen to me, if I was going to stay like that forever. But I did know that if I ever had a chance to see you again, I would."

"You should have known why I couldn't help you." Rachel said shakily. You were taking all those kids and people. You were taking them away from their families and just using them for yourself."

"I had no choice Rachel it was the only way I could survive, to bring in new kids, and to keep the carnival going with fresh help to set it up and take it down, to move on to the next town for the next show. I had a bargain to keep and nothing to go back to." Mr. Tophat took on a look of desperation in his eyes as he spoke, still not fully seeing Rachel's point, she felt.

"It wasn't just that you hurt people, it was that you didn't care." Rachel said, shaking here head and moving it back, to free her chin from Mr. Tophat's grasp.

He let his hand drop away from her face to his side and sighed.

"So much was done for them while I had them Rachel. I gave them food, shelter, and clothing. They had comfortable overalls, all of them. They helped me make so many people happy, that came to the shows. What better job could there be to have in the world."

"But it was against their will." Rachel argued back. "And they were away from their parents."

"I'm sure their parents would have appreciated their work. And both the parents and the children must have appreciated how young and youthful the kids stayed. No time taken away from them at all. And what an experience they were going to help bring to each town over and over again that they went to, for so many years. Sure the parents wouldn't have seen it all, along with their kids, but still." Mr. Tophat said throwing his arms up in the air, as if frustrated that he had to explain what he saw as so obvious.

Rachel looked at him ridiculously from hearing his defense, his excuses, as he griped both her shoulders now, right above where the men's hands were still holding her in place.

"I realized my mistake too late last time Rachel. Even now that I still want to take out my revenge against you for your actions for what happened to me, I can't destroy you when you still have so much potential to help me still."

"What?" Rachel said unbelievably.

"Well I still want my carnival to succeed Rachel. It's the only passion Iv'e ever had. And now I'll have a brand new act to be excited about.."

Mr. Tophat let go of Rachel and stood back as the men in the colorful suits holding her moved over to the side, and turned her around to where they were now facing the red carpet from the beginning of it, and the four red squares that were just outside of either side of it. From the stand and small stage where Mr. Tophat had come through, four more men appeared from the doorway in overalls and went to stand behind one red square each. They each put one hand up and than brought them down upon the red squares and grabbed the fabric that covered the squares, pulling at it. All except the man at the last square on the right side, who stood still by it, not moving at all. Rachel watched as the three men continued to pull away until what was underneath the fabric was fully exposed. Three cages now stood on either side of the carpet, and in those cages that had metal bars going across on all sides, sat Akiko, Graham, and Gavin. They had their hands and legs tied up, hands behind their back, legs bound tightly together in front with yellow ropes. Black scarves were tied around their mouths so well, that they were barely able to make a sound. As soon as the red fabric was removed from over their cages and they could see, they all looked around and immediately tried to call out to Rachel as soon as they saw her. Rachel struggled harder to break free from her captures, but still could not lossen their grip on her arms despite her extra will to get loose, as she saw her friends with their own struggles to get free. Mr. Tophat laughed as Rachel yelled out, "No!" As she felt more dread about the situation than before. She looked at him frightened, but angry.

"Why are you doing this?" You could have just continued on with the carnival without us knowing, and just stayed away from here."

Mr. Tophat turned to face Rachel as he was all too happy to continue to explain, putting his hands on her shoulders again. Gavin able to see his touch on Rachel this time, kicked at the cage he was in.. "You broke my heart Rachel." Mr. Tophat said. I let you know everything, I opened up everything about myself to you, even to your friends. And right in front of them and poor Bartholomew, you, you the one who had all the power in hand, chose to be cruel instead and to throw all your care and mercy away. You took my hope and wish to share so much with you, someone who I thought would understand more than anyone, personal things about me that I had never shared with anyone before, and you turned it all to dust in one single action, that I'm sure never made you look back."

Although Rachel felt at least a small amount of recognition of the little bit of pity she wanted to have for Mr. Tophat back then, she concentrated more on one particular word that he had just used.

"Cruel?" She asked seriously as she looked at him. "You also took people's memories away. All of those kids you took, they didn't remember anything, or anyone from their lives before the carnival at all. You didn't care about anyone else at all, except mostly yourself. You hurt Akiko's brother when he tried to help her and the rest of us. You were going to cut me in half!"

Mr. Tophat's expression went from looking hurt to being frustrated as he defended his actions from the past, once again. "I needed to protect myself Rachel. You and your friends were coming to try and destroy me, and you had been a threat to me for decades. All that time I had been waiting, expecting for that demise from you, and your destruction against my carnival. Doing all of that showmanship for so many people, hoping that I could at least make their night, if not a staying memory. It was all I had. And what would those kids do with their old memories and emotions? They would have just been sad all the time with remembering all of them. And I stopped from wanting to get rid of you for good, didn't I?"

"Because I was able to get away from you! Because I was able to get your cane. All those years you got so used to hurting people for your own reasons, that you still don't care enough about stopping from doing it!" Rachel protested, looking out to the cages to point out the example of her words, as her friends still struggled with their bonds.

"Well I can't get my new carnival started without some good acts to help me out to see what people will like now, before I fully get it all started up, can I? Especially without Bartholomew here. I need your help Rachel. And I have great things planned for you and your friends to help me with that."

"People will know we're missing. They'll come looking for us."

Mr. Tophat scrunched up his face, mocking a look of sympathy and replied, "Oh you mean your mom and your school? How do you think I was partly able to keep parents and friends away from visiting the carnival to look for the kids, along with erasing and changing the memories of of the authorities that visited, so that I wouldn't get caught and arrested with them? I made them all forget Rachel. They come and ask questions, and I would help people lose their worries. Your mom, that school you go to, or went to. I made sure to pay a quick visit to both of them, before I got to you earlier today. They won't be a problem. And whoever comes for them.." Mr. Tophat turned away from Rachel and looked at Akiko, Graham, and Gavin, giving a quick wave of his arm across from one side of where the cages were to the other side. "I'll take care of them as well."

"You better have not hurt my mom!" Rachel cried out, attempting to lunge out at Mr. Tophat, even as she could barely squirm in the men's grasps.

"Oh don't worry Rachel." Mr. Tophat said casually. My new cane if you've noticed, isn't as big on top as it used to be, but it's still strong enough to do what I need it to. And I did just enough to give her a shock, and make her think that you were away from home at another school far away, to where she couldn't reach you for right now. And she will continue to think that for the rest of her life, every time she thinks about you. I think she'll be just fine."

Horrified, Rachel could do nothing but let the men take her back down the carpet as Mr. Tophat with a slight sweep of his arm towards the fourth cage down the carpet, directed them towards it. The men pulled back the cage door and pushed Rachel inside when they got to the cage, closing and locking it shut with a padlock after. Mr. Tophat speaking loud enough for all to hear shouted out, "Everyone try and get some rest, we're going to have a big opening day tomorrow!"

And with a swish of his cane everything spun for a moment for the group stuck in the cages until everything stopped, and Akiko, Graham, Gavin, and Rachel found themselves in a large dark tent, four feet apart from each other. More men than came into the tent to push pillows and blankets through the cages, for them to use for the night.

"How thoughtful." Akiko said sarcastically after she had been given her pillow and blankets. The men left the tent and Gavin turned to Rachel. "Are you okay, did he hurt you?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Rachel answered, turning to look around at everyone after. "I'm so sorry you guys, I never meant for this to happen again." Rachel looked at Akiko in particular, as she had been the most upset about having all of them get involved with having to face Mr. Tophat the last time around, because of Rachel.

"Hey, we didn't have to come back to town, but we did. So let's just try to get out of here." She said.

Graham jostled the padlock and the bars on his cage. "Everything's strong and locked tight. And there's nothing around us to help with breaking out of here." He said looking around.

"I saw the trucks, but I don't even remember how else he got us here. I'm the one who should know more about everything that happened more than anyone. The cane isn't supposed to work on me, and all I remember is seeing all of you unconscious on the floor of Graham's house and passing out, hearing his voice."

"Maybe with the nightmares and all of your stress about school, your more worn down than usual. How much sleep have you gotten in the past few days?" Gavin asked.

"Not much. And my hours have been really off. Iv'e been sleeping either too little, or too much. And I haven't been able to tell if what Iv'e been seeing, or experiencing is real, or if I'm hallucinating."

"Well I can tell you right now, what your experiencing is what's really happening to all of us right now. And the only thing we may be able to do is to just wait for an opportunity to escape." Akiko said.

Everyone sat in their cages awhile longer before laying down with, or against their pillows and blankets, eventually drifting off to sleep. Rachel having slept for awhile before she had woken up in the other tent earlier, couldn't go back to sleep. She thought about her mom as well, hoping that she really was okay. But why would Mr. Tophat lie, if not to make the truth so much worse than what it was, to hurt her? So she continued to lay her head against the bars until her eyelids got heavy and she drifted off to sleep. What felt like only a few seconds since she had last closed her eyes was now full on daylight, as Rachel was awakened by Graham's voice loudly asking what was going on, as he was being pulled out of his cage.

"HEY! What are you doing? Let him go!" Akiko yelled out to the man pulling on Graham, who was now being taken out of the tent.

"What do you think their going to do with him? Gavin asked Akiko, nervously watching Graham being taken out of the tent and away from it, trying to get loose. He looked over at Rachel, who he saw was now awake. "Hey. How are you feeling?" Gavin asked her concerned. "I tried to wake you up earlier, by calling out to you, but you wouldn't move.

"I feel so tired still." Rachel got up from leaning against her cage's bars and looked around, noticing a plate of food and a cup of water near her on the ground, just outside of her cage.

"Those men that came in brought us some food to eat. We ate a couple of bites to see if it was poisoned. Once we found out it was okay to eat and that no one was going to get sick, we ate some more. It's not bad, fills you up pretty good."

Rachel looked at the plate in front of her, wondering if she should eat. She was more tired than anything, but maybe some food would help. On her plate was some mushy stuff that looked like eggs. Next to that was something that looked like a smashed up boiled potato. A small bowl of more mushy stuff that looked like grains were apart of what was in it, was also on the plate.

"It's a type of porridge." Gavin said to Rachel, noticing her confused gaze on the bowl. "There's no real flavor to it, but the eggs and potato have a little bit of salt on them at least."

Rachel picked up the small plastic fork that was on the plate and took some bites of the eggs and potatos. There was at least a littles salt on them to take away a bit of the bitterness fortunately. She picked up the bowl of porridge and forced down a few big gulps of it, and tried to remember exactly what Mr. Tophat had said the night, before to help think about their situation. Like when she had woken up when she had first got there the night before, things were coming back to her mind. She looked up after awhile to see Graham being brought back into the tent. He had different clothes on now that looked like nothing he would choose to wear personally. They looked like he had clothes on that a businessman would wear, a brown suit with a dark tie around the neck. But the suit looked like it was four sizes too big, and the tie was oversized as well, big enough to cover almost the whole front of his chest. He was brought over to his cage and pushed back inside of it and locked in.

"Where'd they take you?" Akiko asked Graham.

"To an outside bathroom." Graham said. "It looked almost like a regular bathroom when you walked in, but it looked really small like a boxed up dressing room on the outside. That guy that took me there wouldn't let me back out of it until I was showered, brushed, and dressed."

The man that had taken and brought Graham back, now moved over to Gavin's cage, opening it after he unlocked it to now pull Gavin out, dragging him towards the tents's exit as well. Gavin tried to fight back but like Graham, could not overpower the strength of the huge man holding on to him. "Let me go!" He said, trying to twist around to get out of the man's grip. Rachel watched helplessly as she she could do nothing, stuck in her cage.

"He's probably just going to take you to the same place as me, and than bring you back." Graham said loudly to Gavin. "There's no fighting him, or slipping away, just go. His grip will just hold you stronger the more you try and fight back."

Gavin settled down and just let the man take him away, as he had no choice. Akiko looked over back at Graham after and observed his new outfit some more. He even had oversized, big and clumpy black shoes on, that made his feet resemble a clown's.

"What's with the crazy suit?" Akiko asked him.

"I don't know, they were on a small table in the bathroom. They must have been placed there by the guy who took me, or someone else while I showered, or something. I wasn't allowed out of the bathroom until I put these clothes on too, after I had washed up and brushed my hair. But its not like there was anything else but a towel to wear anyway. They were the only clothes left inside. My other ones were gone."

"He's preparing us, getting us ready for tonight." Rachel told them.

"Mr. Tophat? Getting us ready for what?" Graham asked.

"For his new show.." Rachel answered, wondering what new outfit, or costume Mr. Tophat would have planned out for her now, along with the act..


	7. Chapter 7

After Graham was brought back and Gavin was taken after and returned, it was Rachel's turn to be taken out of her cage. She watched as Akiko's cage was locked back up after she was put in, and waited for the large man in overalls to come to her next. As she went with him out of the tent Rachel noticed Gavin looking somewhat nervous for her. But while she was concerned Rachel knew that as long as there were plans for them for the carnival, for now, all of them were at least meant to stay alive. When she was locked into the bathroom that Graham had described being put into, Rachel looked around, seeing a toilet, sink with hair and some hygiene items on top, and the shower which had a purple curtain across it. Everything was in purple, red, brown and white shades. Multiple colors, just like a carnival used, Rachel took in. She also noticed that there were no windows, no spaces that could be seen inside of the bathroom, just a yellow skylight window in the ceiling, and some small holes that could barely be seen on either sides of the skylight. They looked like they were there for maybe a use in venting for the bathroom. Rachel saw the small table on the right that was next to the sink, which also had a mirror at the back of it she also noticed now. Rachel made sure that the bathroom door was locked before going over to the small table to disrobe. She got her shoes and socks off but stopped before taking off anything else. She looked over at the mirror and feeling uncomfortable, decided to unfinish undressing in the shower. She didn't see any other reflection than her own in the mirror, but still felt better just throwing her clothes over to the table from behind the shower curtain.

Rachel washed up, getting the fresh towel hanging next to the shower and dried herself before wrapping herself with it. As she stepped out of the shower, Rachel looked over at the small table noticing a movement with her shoes happening. All of her clothes had transformed into different clothing, the last of the transformation happening with her shoes, as they turned from low cut sneakers, into gold hued flat dress shoes. Instead of pants and a shirt, she now had a puffy white dress blouse, a gold tinted vest to put over it, a white skirt that had different lengths of cut white fabric sewn together, and white tights almost spandex thick. She got dressed and brushed her teeth and hair. She went to leave the bathroom, noticing how her new clothing felt good on her skin and fit her perfectly. She opened the door and was grabbed by her arm light enough to just have her be pushed back inside, and keep her from going past the bathroom door right away. Rachel couldn't figure out at first why she wasn't being allowed to leave just yet, until the man at the bathroom door pointed one finger to the sink behind her. She went over and looked at the man than back at the sink, where it looked like the man's finger was pointing to the stuff on it. Rachel realized that there was make up there that all seemed to match her skin tone. She picked up the tube of lipstick she saw and put some on her lips. She used some of the eyeshadow, blush and face powder that was there too, putting on some mascara after. She gave her hair a quick spray with the hairspray can that was on the sink and walked back to the bathroom door. This time she was let out, and taken back to the tent with her friends. The man put Rachel back into her cage and locked it, just like with the others.

"Ohh, fancy." Akiko remarked to Rachel, as she saw what she was given to wear, compared to the rest of them. Akiko herself was wearing an outfit that was in all dark colors, mostly black, that looked like she was going to a dangerous rock concert. Her shirt was torn in places like at the sleeves, and the bottom of her shirt. The bottoms of her pants were also torn in shreds, open razor cut tears littered her legs going up to just four inches away from her waist. She had put her hair up into two separate buns at the top of her head, two stripes of white cloth used to keep them tied up. Gavin looked like he was dressed from the Middle Ages, as a knight without armor, which made Rachel uneasy. All of them could hear the carnival workers moving about around them, getting things ready for the night. From time to time they could hear Mr. Tophat's voice give out commands to them. Almost two hours after they had all gotten ready and put back into their cages, the gang felt the world around them spin again, this time everything stopping inside of another tent, the inside tinted with red lighting. Hay was across the floor just like in the tent that they had spent the night in, the soft red lighting strung up overhead giving this scattering a kind of red, silky look. A flap opened from the left side of the large tent and Mr. Tophat stepped through, twirling his cane before putting it behind his head and across his shoulders as he stepped closer, a pleased smile on his face.

"Well don't all of you look just fantastic." He said, grinning big. "All nice and ready for the show tonight.."

"What's going to happen?" Graham asked nervously.

"Oh it's going to be so much fun!" Mr. Tophat said, stepping to Graham's cage and using his cane to lean on, as he stood over Graham. "Everything's been set up and there's going to be so many screams and smiles that you are going to put on faces, both young and old tonight. "Iv'e even insured some activity for some gasps to go throughout the crowd!" He said gleefully.

"Please just let them go." Rachel begged him. "You have what you want. The carnival is up, you have your powers back, you have the one that hurt you." She said, referring to herself at the end. "You don't really want anyone else here, just keep me if you have to."

"No!" Gavin yelled out, looking at Rachel.

"Oh but I NEED them Rachel." Mr.Tophat said going over to Rachel's cage looking down at her, eyes glowing as he took a moment to appreciate her new look. Ignoring Gavin's outburst he said, "I haven't had the time to get more workers to put up rides like I used to have. And I'm running everything on my own now. And right now, I need a new act."

"You can say that again." Akiko chided in.

Mr.Tophat stood up and casually walked over to Akiko's cage, and hit the side of it just hard enough with his cane to cause the metal to vibrate, causing Akiko to cover her ears from the ringing. He than moved back and went a few feet away from everyone, lifting his left arm out to extend his cane out into the air.

"And now, since the stands are filing up, it's time to start the show!" Mr. Tophat said as he moved the cane back and forth sideways, like he was knocking on the back of an invisible door. A dark wooden wall started to appear across the tent like it had been there all along, but just hidden from view. There was a large plank of wood that stood out from the rest of the wall that was in the middle of it, which Mr. Tophat slide across with both hands, that revealed a dark backstage. Just beyond that was the main stage, bright lights shining down, the stands of visitors visible enough to at least see their shadows just a feet away from the stage's outer ring. Rachel, Akiko, Gavin, and Graham started to yell and hit their cages, hoping to get the attention from anyone in the audience to get some help. Mr. Tophat who was smiling at the awaiting crowd stood calmly, waiting for a moment for the group's yells and screams to die down.

"Go on, get it all out of your system." He told them as they started to calm down and realize that no one from the stands was going to react enough to their outbursts. "One of the advantages of having a horror themed carnival, is that everyone's going to expect some screams." He told the group, grinning widely again. "It says so on the flyers.."

And with that Mr. Tophat walked out into the large, open stage to start the show. "Good evening all of you out there in the stands, who are lucky enough to be here to witness tonight's events!" He said enthusiastically to the people in the stands, as the stage lights all focused on him. "This evening you'll see some of the most frightful acts that you may never have been so frightfully privileged to see up close in all of your lives!.. So far anyway.."

Mr. Tophat swung around and held his arms out to the scene behind him which the spotlights now focused on. There were four sets of props all brand new and ready to be used, all looking sinister in their design. Mr. Tophat swung back around and continued to address the audience once again, not missing a step. "Here in this tent your going to watch as four young people face themselves as they never have before in terrifying ways, as all of you get to watch!" Mr.Tophat said, letting out a chilling laugh that echoed throughout the whole tent. The audience shifted uneasily, not sure of what they were about to witness. But as he was so very used to, Mr.Tophat calmed the audience by repeating his most deployed line that worked every time. "Don't worry everyone, it's all going to be alright. Just remember whatever happens.. It's all a part of the show! Now let's begin!"

For a moment all went dark in the tent, and than the spotlights turned on and fixed themselves to the center of the ring. A long, red stand from the set of props that were shown to the audience just a few minutes before, was now standing at the left of the center ring, a board of wood that had the shape of a person painted on it. Akiko was brought out than, held by two men dressed to look like hangman. She saw from the darkness of the backstage the main stage in front, and screamed outloud for someone to help her again. In the stands people were still a bit confused about how to react, looking back and forth at each other. Akiko was taken to the red board with the body outline on it and placed against it. Her arms, legs, hands, and feet were tied to the board, along with her waist and neck. Holes that had been drilled through the board in all the necessary places for thin ropes to be used to tie a person against the board, matched up with certain places along the body outline on the board, which could now be seen to match Akiko's physical profile perfectly. Especially now that she was tied against the still standing board. All the holes were drilled just big enough to tie the ropes through them and to be knotted on the other side, to keep a person as still as possible. Akiko was sideways on the board, legs straight but parted by a few inches, arms out from her body and bent at the elbow, her fisted hands a couple of inches from her head. Her face was turned to the audience with her forehead tied down with ropes as well, to show them her fear. Mr. Tophat came over to Akiko and introduced the act.

"A young woman whose tongue can be as sharp as a knife's!" He stated. "Let's see if she can face the same type of sharp things from others!"

A man came out from the other side of the tent through the darkness, stopping twenty feet away from Akiko. He wore black, baggy pants and a shirt, with black boots. He had a red sash tied around his waist, the ends of it put into a knot and dangling down one of the sides of his legs. A black cap was on his head that looked like a tied on handkerchief. The tied ends dangling behind his head. In his hands were twelve long knives, which glistened in the light. Akiko couldn't turn her head, but from the slightly visible looks of some of the people she could see in the tent's stands, she knew by their surprised and concerned faces that she was about to be in some serious trouble...


	8. Chapter 8

"My friend here is about to show us an amazing skill that he has." Mr. Tophat spoke out. "Now watch as he practices his accuracy."

The man with the knives took out one knife from the collection in his left hand, and pointed it at Akiko before bringing it back past his head and than throwing it forward, sending it flying her way. It flew through the air and hit half a centimeter away from the inside of one of her parted legs. Feeling the hard hit against the board and extremely near her leg, Akiko screamed. Mr. Tophat laughed, putting his hands together and clapping, getting the audience to cheer on with him, after some gasps and small screams emitted from the crowd after the first knife had landed. The next blade that was thrown landed near Akiko's thigh. She screamed again, trying to pull herself free from the board she was tied to, but only ended up screaming again and again, as more blades were felt hitting the board. When there was a longer pause after one throw compared to the other ones, Akiko's hope that the act was over started to rise, when she felt her blood run cold by the feel of another blade hitting the board, this one almost cutting into her scalp at the top of her head. The next blade after hit the board so close to her face, that Akiko would be able to actually feel it with the tip of her nose if she reached her head out a bit.

The last blade was the worst however. The blade hit so near Akiko's right hand that was tied just passed her left one on the board, that she felt that this last knife had actually cut her. A couple of seconds after she felt the force of the blade hit near her hand, Akiko saw a streak of red start to fall from it and slide down the board as the audience gasped again, at the large drop of red falling. Akiko screamed again, this time going into a panic, her body feeling the other knives that had been slung to the board, as she tried to wiggle free. They had all been thrown so near to her that just one extra struggle against the ropes got her body to feel exactly where all the knives were caught, as her body seemed to have been framed by all of them. Akiko felt close to passing out, feeling overwhelmed by the all the adrenaline and panic she had just gone through for the whole act. But before that could happen, she was being untied and taken down from the board. As she was being brought down, Akiko looked back at the board and could see that the knives had perfectly outlined her body. She looked down at her hand where she saw the blood fall from, as the two men who had untied her and brought her down from the board, held her still in one spot. She was sure she had been cut, but didn't see even one mark on her hand. There was also no blood on the board, no blood red drop, or streak on it either. Mr. Tophat went over to Akiko and lifted both her arms as he stood next to her.

"As you can see," He told the audience, "There is no harm that has come to the young woman. Isn't that amazing?!"

The audience clapped in both amazement and relief, as they saw that Akiko was completely okay from injury. Mr. Tophat let go of Akiko and let the men holding onto to her start to take her away to the backstage area, but not before he suggested to her, "Next time it would be easier, if you stayed just a little more still." He put up his left hand and used his thumb and forefinger to give Akiko a small example of what he meant by holding those fingers just half an inch apart from each other, his hand close to her face. The two men took Akiko through the dark backstage and to her cage in the red lit space just beyond where the others stayed, still stuck in their cages. They tried to ask her questions after she was put back into her cage, but Akiko just stayed looking at her hands, her legs, and than felt the top of head, thinking she might have some sort of injury. She finally blurted out, "Knives, sharp, blood?" The lack of even one full sentence from Akiko scared the group even more, especially Graham, who was now being taken out of his cage to be used for the next act. He shook his head back and forth saying, "No, no, no, no, No!" As no one could do anything but watch him be taken away, not knowing what awaited him with his turn out in the ring. Rachel still feeling guilty about all of their circumstances, closed her eyes and took in a deep breath to keep herself from panicking.

"He needs us right now." She said aloud. "He won't do anything to lose us when he needs us still."

It was enough to settle Gavin down a bit and even Akiko, who was now slowly starting to come around to herself and was now looking at the dark back stage space where Graham had just been dragged into. On the other side of the tent where the main stage was, Graham was pushed out into the spotlight as Mr. Tophat said, under a soft spotlight,

"So many people think clowns are terrifying. But your going to see tonight, why they can also be so much fun!"

A clown that had come up from behind Graham pushed him forward, causing him to stumble and land hands first on a mini trampoline that was conveniently right in front of him, which than sprang him backwards into the arms of now four clowns, which Graham pushed himself away from on the sight of looking up at them, surprised. He turned around his back towards the audience, his eyes fixed on the clowns that were now coming around him from the backstage. He didn't see the bucket on the ground of the ring that he was moving slowly backwards to. His foot caught into the bucket as he backed into it, and Graham started to wave his arms around trying to keep himself from falling over, as his right foot was now stuck in the bucket. The crowd laughed, watching the young man trying to keep from landing hard on the ground, trying to shake the bucket off his foot. He instead landed sideways to the left, and into a nearby net hanging from a pole that had been placed well into the ground. A few of the clowns grabbed the bottom of the net and began to go around the pole in a circle, swinging Graham in it, dizzying him. After about five minutes the clowns let go of the net and Graham let go too, his head spinning so much that he forgot all about trying to keep his oversized pants up.

They fell down to his ankles, causing more laughter from the audience, as they now saw the huge yellow and pink polka dotted trunk underwear he had been given with his new clothing, when he dressed in the bathroom earlier that day. His walking was compromised by the baggy material of his pants, as Graham tried to walk without turning around in circles again on the stage, but failing. His waist came to hit the side of a large, wide wooden barrel on the right, one that had been apart of the four sets of props that had been shown to the audience just a bit earlier. And now Graham fell over and into it, head first. As he got up from inside the barrel and took in a deep breath of air, Graham realized he had fallen into something inside the barrel. It smelled like stall garbage water and even though Graham's germaphobia had eased up from when he was a kid, thinking that he may be standing and covered in strange, dirty water, sent him into a panic attack. He started to scream as he held up his hands, seeing kernels of old popcorn and a piece of used gum that was stuck to his fingers. Mr. Tophat laughed loudly again, the audience in the stands joining in. Two strong looking clowns came and lifted Graham up out of the barrel. They took him backstage now, pants still down, his clothes soaked, as he was brought to his cage where he was hosed down with clean water. After his panic attack settled down Graham looked around himself, making sure he was free of anymore garbage debree. He picked up the gum that had been stuck to his fingers, noticing something strange about it. As he turned it in the light he saw that it was just shiny rubber, made to imitate the real thing. Before Gavin could ask Graham if he was ok he heard his cage unlock, and turned to see that it was his turn to go out to the main stage next..

Out in the open on the main stage, Gavin stood in the middle of the ring in the spotlight. Mr. Tophat stood off to the right in shadow, a moving silhouette speaking.

"Here we have a young man whose attraction to a lovely and beloved thing, has brought him courage more than what he may have not usually had without them. But let's see how he will do just on his own.."

Mr.Tophat stayed off stage as his shadow pointed his cane to the other side of the ring. A tall figure in metal attire came out from the darkness wearing a full knight's armor, helmet and all, clinking as he walked into the ring. Gavin started to step back a bit, unsure of what the knight would do. A carnival worker stopped him before he moved too far back, pushing him to the center of the ring again. A man dressed in medieval garb stepped out from the back stage and placed two swords firmly in the ground between Gavin and the knight. He stepped back away from the ring and announced, "Let the battle begin!" The knight moved forward and grasped the sword closest to him with one hand. He pulled it out of the ground with ease and begin to lift it high into the air, his other hand coming up and wrapping itself around the hilt of the sword like his other had. Than both hands started to bring down the sword, aiming right for the top of Gavin's head. More by instinct than anything, Gavin quickly squatted to the ground and rolled away from the knight and his sword.

The knight's sword hit the ground where Gavin had just been, having missed him by just an inch as he had rolled away just in time. The crowd in the stands gasped and some even stood up to see where Gavin had rolled off to, out of the spotlight. Gavin not having gone off too far, quickly got back up off the ground. He looked at the knight who had already turned his head towards Gavin and was now straightening his back and lifting his sword off of the ground, and heading towards where Gavin now stood. As he got closer he began to move forward a little faster, getting ready to attack again. Gavin looked around at first not knowing what to do. He looked past the knight heading towards him and saw the other sword still in the ground, and decided it was his best hope for defense. He ran towards the sword, the knight following right behind him. When Gavin got to the sword he put both hands on the hilt and pulled up as hard as he could. He didn't know what kind of magic the man that had put the swords into the ground had used, but it had caused the swords to be almost cemented into the ground. Gavin looked over to his right and saw the knight was already almost where he was again.

He pulled on the sword again before ducking and rolling out of the way a second time before the knight brought his sword down again, this time hitting the side of the sword that Gavin was trying to pull out of the ground. The sword fell to the side and the knight ignoring it to go after Gavin again, lifted his sword once more and started to walk towards him. Seeing the sword ajar, Gavin ran around the oncoming knight again and went towards the sword, this time pulling it from the ground as he grasped the hilt once more. The crowd in the stands cheered at his success, now excited for a more even match. As the knight got closer to Gavin, this time he was ready to try and defend himself. He raised the sword he had up, and blocked the knight's sword from hitting his face. The crowd cheered again and Gavin pushed his sword against the knight's as hard as he could, causing the knight to go off balance just enough to move back and have to steady himself, holding onto his sword with only one hand, using his other to flail around in the air to give him his balance again. Gavin moved back, stepping to the side to get a better position over the knight. The knight having recovered his balance, ran towards Gavin and brought his sword out from the bottom instead of the overhead attack he had been using. Gavin barely caught it, blocking the attack again as he moved back farther than he had ever done before.

He was now stepping to the side again and coming around to the right, just a few feet away from the outer ring of the main stage and the audience behind it. The knight turned and this time full on charged at Gavin, his sword pointing straight for his chest. Gavin not sure how to end the battle, quickly acted on a move he had seen in a sword fight that he had seen in a movie or two before. He gripped his sword extra tight, and right when the knight hit within what looked like his sword's range, Gavin turned around in a circle while lifting his sword high enough to reach the knight, expecting to throw him off balance enough to have him fall completely to the ground this time. But instead of just hitting his armor, the sword that Gavin swung caught the small space that was the separation between the knight's helmet and upper body armor. As Gavin turned a full circle his sword caught that space and sliced through the neck of the knight, causing him to let go of his sword one hand at a time before stumbling back a few feet, falling backwards to the ground. His helmet rolled off from his body towards the other side of the ring, a deep red ooze starting to pour out from the bottom. People in the audience screamed, some of them got up from their sets again, to see if what they were seeing was real, a possible accidental murder in the ring. Gavin stood frozen, breathing shallow. Killing the knight was the last thing he wanted to do, and now as he saw the unmoving suit of armor on the ground and the helmet which was once the knight's connected head, a feeling of horror from a terrible action he had committed, sunk him like an anchor to the ground. He dropped the sword he was holding and felt his knees hit the dirt of the ring beneath him. Mr. Tophat who had been standing off to the side of the main ring laughing at times from Gavin's actions in the battle, now stepped over to the center of the ring, speaking loudly.

"Calm down everyone, I'm sure our knight friend is just fine.." Mr. Tophat looked at the helmet with a fake look of confusion on his face as he poked at the helmet with his cane for a few seconds before picking it up quickly, turning it over in the air with a flip, and stopping to hold it right side up. Red tendrils fell out from beneath the helmet, for a moment looking like possible muscle material from the neck had fallen out. More people screamed and put their hands to their mouths, till they saw the tendrils shake back and forth by Mr. Tophat's hands. What looked like stringy body parts from the helmet could now be seen as red crepe paper in ribbon form moving around in the air. Mr. Tophat than walked over to the body of armor and gave it a hard kick with the bottom of one of his boots. The armor fell apart, some of it rolling away, all completely empty inside. People gasped and than applauded at the sight, not believing their eyes at the trick. Gavin still in shock breathed in deeply, letting out a huge exhale of air after, relieved and not caring how the trick worked, just that there was no actual person inside of the armor all along. Hopefully. Mr. Tophat laughed heartily with the relieved crowd, throwing the helmet at a nearby carnival worker. They along with other workers that had now picked up the rest of the armor, walked out of the ring, taking it all away. Other workers came out to lift Gavin up off the ground and take him backstage. He practiced at breathing steadier now, calming down. Back in his cage, he looked up at Rachel, trying to look as unaffected as possible by his time out in the ring. Rachel with worry and concern on her face, asked Gavin if he was okay.

"I'm fine, really, I'm okay." He told Rachel, trying to look convincing.

Rachel was than taken out for her turn now, to be seen on the main stage. Gavin clutched the bars of his cage, wanting more than anything to be able to keep her from going out there, but was helpless in his cage. As Rachel started to reach the ring she could hear Mr.Tophat's voice starting to announce the next act, her.

"And now, Iv'e saved the most special act for last." Rachel could hear the extra glee in his voice. "She comes from right here in this town, and will face obstacles only known to one other person that has ever been on these grounds!"

As Rachel came from out of the darkness of the backstage she squinted her eyes hard at what definitely wouldn't be the last time that she did so for that night, as for that first moment, it was the lighting from the spotlights that caused her eyes discomfort. As she got used to the bright light enough to look around at the ring, Rachel noticed a large wheel standing up against a stand holding it almost all the way up. The large wheel had thick straps on it, two on the top, two at the bottom. Instead of butterflys, it felt like insects with small sharp claws now dug their way at the inside of Rachel's stomach, as extra fear started to take over. She didn't have a clue of what she was about to face, but Rachel had a feeling that it wasn't going to be easy going at all.

"And now RACHEL everybody, give her a hand!" Mr.Tophat encouraged the crowd, as he extended an arm out towards her as the workers holding her arms brought her all the way out into the ring. As she was brought in front of the large wheel, crowd clapping, Mr. Tophat turned to Rachel and said to her in a low voice, "And now, the real fun begins.."


	9. Chapter 9

Rachel looked at the wheel as she was being lifted up into it. Each spoke was painted a different color from the center plate of the wheel, a flat circular spiral that Rachel was tied against. Each of her arms were tied to opposite sides of the wheel, her wrists strapped down, along with her feet individually but right next to each other, at the bottom of the wheel. The outer ring of the wheel had small panels placed around it. There were words on them but but Rachel couldn't see from her place in the middle of the wheel what they said. The wheel sparkled with pieces of shiny metal that was embedded into it here and there. Mr. Tophat addressed the audience again.

"Rachel is someone who once had the fate of a whole life in her hands. Within a matter of seconds she decided to make an action that would change that life forever. Now that favor will be returned back to her, and she'll know what kind of circumstances certain actions can bring."

The carnival workers and assistants had left the ring. No one except Rachel and Mr. Tophat now occupied the main stage. He moved over to the side of the wheel and placed his hand on it. Giving it a grip his hand pulled it with a hard downward motion, causing the wheel to turn.

"And here we go!" He said.

Rachel went around and around in a spinning circle. She could hear the click the wheel made as it went around, seeing only dizzying blurs of the insides of the tent, the lights, some of the shapes of the faces in the audience as she went around with the wheel. When it stopped after slowing down for a moment Rachel lay against the wheel diagonally, her head continuing to feel like she was still spinning. Mr. Tophat went from the side of the wheel to the front, his eyesight focused on the very top of the wheel where underneath a silver metal arrow that was just over the top of the wheel, lay a panel that had now just come into play.

"Ha Ha, LOSS!" Mr. Tophat shouted to the audience. "Yes, we all have experienced loss at one point of our lives. Some losses are big, some small, but all are painful.. Rachel!" Mr. Tophat shouted out, turning back to her. "I wonder how much loss you have known about in your life so far? I wonder if you have ever thought about what it would be like to lose everything, maybe even twice.. seeing everything just fall away before you.."

Rachel looking worried and nervous, watched Mr. Tophat turn back around and wave his cane across the air up in front of him. A screen of images appeared, stretching across the inside of the tent for everyone to see. The images were of places, people, all things related to Rachel. She saw her new and old home that she had lived in. She saw old and new friends, which included all the MS members, she saw her hang outs as a kid, the college she went to now, or used to. Than she saw the image of her father going by, her mother. That last image hurt the most, as Rachel thought about her mom all alone now, not being able to even call her anymore. Tears started to form in Rachel's eyes as Mr. Tophat continued to speak.

"Imagine all the things you hold dear, everyone. Families, friends, places that you grew up in. Dreams you always held dear, whether or not they would have included any, or all of them. Imagine if you lost them all. What if the important things in your life fell apart, disappeared. How would it feel, what could you do? How does it feel, Rachel.." Mr. Tophat said turning back to her. "To know that it all can be gone, taken away, crumbled forever by something and by someone, without anything you can do about it?"

He waved his cane across the screen of images and moved them closer to Rachel, as he got out of the way. As the images came closer Rachel noticed that they started to look pixelated, like they were coming apart. The images suddenly exploded, flying towards Rachel in small bits. Rachel now felt physical pain as the small bits hit her skin, causing her to shut her eyes quickly, her head turning to avoid the skin on her face from being hurt. She could hear the audience gasp as she got hit, feeling sharp pricks on her skin. When it was over Rachel opened her eyes and looked around at her arms, torso, and legs, wishing she could touch her neck and face. As she looked over the skin on her arms that were exposed she saw what looked like some small pieces of sharp metal, the size of cut confetti, stuck on her skin. Most of the other pieces that she had felt hit her, fell somewhere else. But they had hit her hard enough before falling away to cause small, thin cuts to her skin and clothing. And while there was no bleeding to be seen, Rachel's skin was still cut enough to see all the red from the small cuts that were just deep enough to where they went through a few layers of her skin, made from the shrapnel. Rachel looked at Mr. Tophat with wide eyes, trying to control her now fast breathing.

"Does it hurt Rachel?" He said in a way that seemed to play up to and address the crowd's curiosity, more than hers. But Rachel knew he was directly talking to and addressing, only her. "Do you feel the sting of all that which is now gone?"

Rachel took in what he was trying to show her. He looked at her with steady, serious eyes. He was giving her an example of a story, his story, using her life as an example. Mr. Tophat moved back to the side of the wheel and turned it. It went around and around making Rachel dizzy again, feeling somewhat worse than before. After going to the front of the wheel to see what panel it had landed on once the wheel stopped again, Mr.Tophat moved back to the side of the wheel and announced the panel to the audience.

"CONNECTION! Something that has a kind of bond with another. It can be a nice spark to share, or a painful current."

Mr. Tophat put his cane to the wheel and glided it against the rim. The metal pieces on the wheel began to glow and create sparks. Some of them jumped onto Rachel's skin. Her back arched up, her hands clenched, and her eyes squinted in pain. The small cuts in her skin burned, getting seared by the sparks landing on them. The rest of her skin felt the heat, the fabric in her clothing getting burnt in very small parts where some of the sparks landed. Rachel yelled out, "Stop!" The sparks stopped and Mr. Tophat lifted his cane, making the sparks stop.

"Such a strong connection we had once shared Rachel." He whispered to her looking down, as this last spin had ended with Rachel laying against the wheel horizontally, her head closest to him. "I wonder if you understand how much it hurt me to see it burn away from you and I so soon, after I had noticed it. I also wonder though, if it's all entirely gone."

Mr. Tophat reached over and slowly ran the top of his fingers over Rachel's forehead, from one side to the other, moving away strands of her hair that had flown across her face and had gotten stuck there from some of her sweat. Rachel closed her eyes trying not to look at him, keeping her head forward. She also repressed reacting to a tingle that she suddenly felt rise up inside of her body because of his touch. Rachel's eyes opened and she looked over at Mr. Tophat who had the same look of surprise on his face that she felt she probably had on hers. Any thought that he had created that tingling between the two of them with any magic from his cane was dropped from her mind, once Rachel also saw the additional look of confusion on his face that Mr. Tophat also wore. He stayed looking at her face as he backed away from her, going back to the side of the wheel.

"Looks like our girl is ok and ready for the next challenge!" Mr. Tophat announced to the audience, who had gone silent since the sparks on the wheel with Rachel had started. He grabbed hold of the side of the wheel and gave it another good pull. Rachel was starting to feel nauseous along with being dizzy now, her mind slipping just a bit. This time when he saw what panel that the arrow was pointing at, Mr. Tophat left out saying what it was out loud, keeping it to himself. Instead he immediately spoke to Rachel.

"Rachel, how about we go back to the deal we could have had together, the day we had last met. Do you remember what that was?" Mr. Tophat stepped back over to Rachel and put two of his fingers into Rachel's right hand, putting his thumb right behind it after, slightly holding her hand. "Do you remember that all you had to do was to help everyone to remember who I was, what I could bring them?"

Rachel nodded her head remembering their deal in the rain, at the place that they had first met.

"It's all I wanted. Just that one thing. We could still have that Rachel. Would you like that deal again, could you still possibly do that for me? Your friends, I can let them go Rachel. I would set them free, just like I promised before.."

Rachel looked at Mr.Tophat and saw the same type of desperation and sadness that she had first seen from him that night in the rain. Despite what he had done she felt compelled to want to help him, to make the deal, save her friends. But Rachel paused just long enough to think a few things through quickly, instead of just reacting and agreeing to take the deal right away. She thought about how intent Mr. Tophat had been all this time to keep her and her friends here at the new carnival for his new use. And as she continued to think about his actions and words, Rachel also thought about how loud Mr. Tophat was talking, loud enough for the whole crowd under the tent to be able to hear. And now there were small glints in his eyes, like something wasn't quite right about his sincerity. He was trying to make another point, not a deal, she realized.

"No.. No because it's not what you really want. Especially right now." Rachel said to him.

Mr. Tophat's mouth broke out into a grin, his eyes going from a look of sadness to delight, as he could see that Rachel had taken in the realization.

"BETRAYAL!" He yelled out to the crowd. "Oh how tides can so easily turn! Remember everyone, how easy it could be to take trust from someone, and how it can be so easily broken.."

The audience in the stands looked on a bit confused about this last part of the act, but still waited to see what was next. Mr. Tophat spun Rachel's wheel once again. Rachel closed her eyes and clenched her her jaw shut, putting her head against the wheel, trying to do her best to continue to keep herself together as much as she could, now that more dizziness and nausea was about to come around. She felt so lost and tired with everything that had been happening within that week. Now this extra torture was doing it's job, keeping her even more from being able to gather herself together, just far enough away from being her complete self, to be able to be strong enough to fight off the one person that only she could defeat. The wheel landed on, ANGER. Mr. Tophat walked around the ring and began to speak about the particular emotion that he had been left to feel all to often, while he was stuck in the woods.

"Ah, Anger. It's the quickest emotion that you can feel, and one of the strongest emotions that can take awhile for you to let go. It can last for a moment and take you over for just a bit of time, or it can last for.. years.." Mr. Tophat said pausing before and after that last word, seeming to go off to other places in his head. Rachel shifted uncomfortably. Her rest stop on the wheel when it stopped turning this time left her in an almost upside down position. It made it harder for her to recover from the dizziness the turning of the wheel caused, and now with this last word panel, Rachel feared the worst was yet to come from this act.

"Anger is like fire that eats you up, and is hard to ignore. It can at times give you strength, or help to destroy you. How are you at anger, Rachel?" Mr. Tophat said turning to face her. "Do You think that you can withstand it's strong flames?"

From her near upside down viewpoint Rachel saw the small amount of resentment that Mr. Tophat sent her way with a look he gave her, coming closer again. He put both his hands at the bottom of the wheel and lifted it, turning into more of a circular table that Rachel was attached to. He turned the wheel around, bringing Rachel's head back to being at the top to where the audience would have a better view of her face. Rachel looked up at the ceiling of the tent and saw orangish-red orbs floating above her. Inside them the colors danced about, looking alive.

"Look at them, Rachel." Mr.Tophat said. "Look at what worries you deep inside."

Rachel looked at the orbs and saw her dorm room in one of them.

"A place where a dream could start. Is that what you were hoping for, Rachel? Do you think it would have worked out for you?"

The orb burst into flames and fell down to the wheel, landing right near Rachel's side. The flames swirled for a few seconds than disappeared. She let out a small scream and scooted over as much as she could to keep her side from catching fire. The crowd let out small yelps of surprise, startled but not so scared or fearful for Rachel's possible demise, having gotten used to the scary "effects only" harm that looked to only come to the participants featured in the acts. Mr. Tophat having only a short laugh at Rachel's reaction to the flames, moved on to the next orb, which had Gavin's face inside of it.

"Ah. The Boyfriend. The one that's supposed to be there for you, love you, be what you need. Is he Rachel, everything that you need?" Mr. Tophat said looking at Rachel with a smirk on his face.

The second orb like the last, burst falling to the wheel and landing near one of Rachel's legs. Some of the fabric from her tights caught fire and Rachel struggled to try and move to put it out, starting to scream. But before she could finish trying to put out the fire, a gloved hand was at the side of her leg suddenly, quickly rubbing the fire out. Mr. Tophat stepped away from Rachel ignoring the thrust up she did with her leg as she realized it was his hand on her, trying to push him off. Rachel looked up at the next orbs, saw that both of the last ones had a picture of her old home, and than one of her mom all alone, again. That last picture hit harder than before, Rachel remembering that the last time her and her mom were together had her trying to get out of the house quicker than she ever had before, lying to her. And now making up for that was gone for her. Anger burned inside Rachel as she wanted to fight, wanted to break free and get back home. She could hear Mr. Tophat's voice speaking in the background, but only caught the very end.

".. Maybe one day, somehow, somewhere, she'll be able to see and speak to her again." He said, talking to the audience.

Rachel looked over at him, her hands balling up into fists. She lost sight of the last two orbs that hung overhead which had turned into flames already, falling towards her. One set of flames landed near one of her arms, the other near her head. Rachel turned her head to the side to avoid the heat, as Mr. Tophat quickly forced the flames away from catching any part of her head on fire, with his cane. The one near her arm disappeared like the others did. Rachel's eyes begin to tear up, upset with the situation she was in. She could suddenly feel drops of something falling on her. She turned her head back to the top of the ceiling of the tent and instead of orbs she saw a light grey cloud hanging over her, looking kind of misty. She realized that there were light raindrops falling on her now. They looked like water droplets and felt nice and cool, despite them gettin her all wet.

"Such sorrow, such self-pity to be felt over what we once had and wish we could continue. It's like being out in the rain.." Mr. Tophat pushed the wheel back down to the upright position, as the cloud disappeared. As the water from the raindrops slid off of the wheel onto the ground, the audience could now see that Rachel's skin was clear of any burns, or cuts. It looked like she hadn't been hurt at all. But what wasn't seen was the internal damage that had been inflected from the experience. Just enough for Rachel to understand what Mr. Tophat had wanted her to, involving plights of his life, especially where Rachel was involved. What she had helped in taking away, what it felt like for him.

"Let's hear it for Rachel everyone, what a participant she's been tonight!" Mr. Tophat yelled out to the audience turning towards them and encouraging them to clap. As they did the large spotlight went from Rachel to Mr. Tophat as he thanked the audience for coming, as the last act was now over. He told everyone to come out again and to tell others about the show when the next set of flyers were sent out again for their area. The crowd clapped again and dispersed, getting up from the stands and exiting the tent. The two workers that had brought Rachel out now unstrapped her and took her down from the wheel. But before they could get a strong hold on her, Rachel pulled away from them and headed straight for Mr. Tophat. As he watched last of the crowd leave, Mr. Tophat turned around just in time to hear Rachel scream and put up her arms up to try and hit him with the sides of her fists. He caught her wrists, almost dropping his cane as he struggled to get a hold of Rachel. He turned her around and wrapped his arms over hers, bending the both of them over to help Rachel calm and to keep her from any attempt she might make to kick him.

"Now, now, Rachel.." Mr. Tophat said, holding Rachel tight up against his chest. "What good would it do to hurt me?" Haven't you done enough already? Aren't your friends dealing with enough as it is?"

Not able to do more than just try and break free from Mr. Tophat's embrace, Rachel stopped moving and just caught her breath for a moment. Mr. Tophat straightened himself and Rachel back up, pushing her to the carnival workers who had come around to the front of him and Rachel. As they took hold of her Mr. Tophat made a blanket appear from the air, and wrapped it around Rachel as the workers started to take her away, back to her cage.

"Goodnight, Rachel." He told her as she was being taken through the dark backstage to the red lit area. "Have some nice dreams."


	10. Chapter 10

After the show Akiko, Graham, Gavin, and Rachel were taken back to their large tent and were given some soup and bread for dinner. They were each individually taken one at a time again to the outer bathroom to change clothing and to wash up for bed. Gavin had asked Rachel if she was okay when she had been put back into her cage earlier. Like Gavin before her, Rachel had managed to compose herself enough to only let a small amount of what she went through to be seen. She mentioned the wheel and crazy images of things that were around her with some rain just thrown into the act for fun, and left out everything else. She didn't want to talk about any details that happened on the wheel, or anything else that might concern anyone. It had already been a rough night. Akiko and Graham had talked about what they had went through for their acts, and Gavin mentioned the knight battle, but left out the more harsh parts that he had experienced. Rachel could sense that something else was there, but let it drop, as Gavin didn't want to mention anything else. As they all went to sleep in their cages, Rachel also wrapped her blankets around herself to try and get some sleep. She thought about what happened in her act on the wheel. She thought about what she went through emotionally and what worried her the most. And she thought about what she didn't want to but was there, about the new connection she felt with Mr. Tophat while she was stuck on the wheel. She drifted off to sleep like everyone else did eventually, all hoping for and wondering about a way to escape their situation in Mr. Tophat's new carnival..

..To another bright spotlight Rachel opened her eyes to hear the sound of a clapping crowd. She looked around, turning her head from side to side to see where she was. She was back at the tent where her and her friends had been put through the acts created for them, for Mr. Tophat's show. But all she could see were parts of the tent's surroundings that could barely be seen in the dark past the spotlight, and the shapes of some of the audience's faces in the stands again. It felt like she was the only that was in the ring, until she heard his voice.

"Welcome everyone to the new act we have here tonight. Our beautiful girl here is going to participate in showing all of you that in the darkness, there can be at least a little light beauty to be seen." Mr. Tophat who was now standing a little further ahead of her, turned and held a hand out to Rachel, who was dressed in a dazzling gown. Rachel took his hand and walked forward to where he was standing. He took both her hands and put them up for her, palms out and up. He turned toward a carnival worker who handed Mr. Tophat a small black velvet clothed, covered box. He placed one of his hands under the box and slowly removed the velvet covering with the other. He than reached inside and pulled out a curled up black and white striped snake that went up to being three feet long, after Mr. Tophat carefully stretched it out with his hands. He lifted the snake up and went over to Rachel moving to stand behind her. He moved his head a bit to the side of hers so she could hear him better. He told her to keep still as he lowered his arms down in front of her, bringing the snake down over the front of her head, and into her hands. Before Rachel could react in too much fear, Mr. Tophat put his hands over her shoulders and squeezed them to help her keep calm.

"Now, now, it won't hurt you. Just relax and show it to the audience."

Rachel did her best to keep her body steady and her breathing even, as she refrained from going into any panicking as she stood up a little straighter, and put her arms out more towards the audience in the stands in front of her. The audience kept quiet, mouths hanging open as they visibly moved back in their seats, even though they were nowhere near the snake. Mr. Tophat moved his hands down from Rachel's shoulders and slid them underneath her arms, moving them to her hands, and placing his underneath hers. Rachel had made sure to try and not move a muscle as he did so, even though the gliding of his hands made her skin slightly tickle. Mr. Tophat moved his hands away from Rachel's just a few inches away underneath to bring them back up quickly, to hit the backside of her hands for the snake to jump up from them and into the air just above her head. The audience became alarmed, some people screamed. But when the snake landed back into Rachel's hands it was no longer a snake but a feather boa, which Mr. Tophat took from Rachel's hands and placed around her neck. The crowd cheered, laughing at themselves and looking at each other, embarrassed about being so scared by the apparently safe trick. Rachel recovering from the small heart attack she almost just had, took some deep breaths, knowing that her own fear was nothing to be embarrassed by here. The people in the audience didn't know Mr. Tophat like she did. What he could actually be capable of with fear..

Another velvet covered box was brought out. This one was a square bird cage, and when the cloth was removed, a raven sitting on a perch was inside. Mr. Tophat took out the raven and placed it in Rachel's hands like he did with snake, telling her to hold the bird carefully, face forward. He stepped back behind her and cupped his hands against hers. He brought his arms down with hers, telling Rachel to help him release the bird up into the air.

"Ready?" He asked, watching her shake her head up and down. "Alright, here we go..1..2..3!" Mr. Tophat and Rachel threw up their arms and released the raven into the air. It reached a height of a couple of feet overhead and a puff of smoke surrounded it, a white dove taking the raven's place. It spread it's wings out and fell safely back into Rachel's hands. Mr. Tophat standing behind Rachel had his arms over hers still, as the audience clapped happily.

"You see Rachel. We could bring so much to so many crowds of people out there." He said, waving an arm over the crowds in the stands. "All is not lost just yet for my dream.."

Rachel's eyes opened and the brightness from the day could be seen breaking through the tent she was back in. She sat up and looked around, seeing that everyone was awake too.

"Last one up, again." Gavin teased Rachel from his cage. Rachel looked at him smiling, seeing him clearly trying to joke to make their situation better. Rachel smiled back at him noticing breakfast was at the foot of their cages again, same as the morning before.

"How's everyone doing?" Rachel asked, trying to stretch inside of her cage, pushing her blanket off.

"Alright. Surprisingly no waking up in the middle of the night, screaming nightmares to be had. Doing just great." Akiko said with a less than thrilled face, eating some of the bread that was a part of their breakfast meal.

She couldn't tell if Akiko was joking about the, "waking up screaming" part, or just being her fortunately, usual sarcastic self. But Rachel felt that if any screaming had happened, that she would have been able to wake up from hearing it. Maybe.

"How did you sleep?" Gavin asked.

Rachel looked back at Gavin, thinking about her, not-just-a-dream sleep she had just woken up from. Her time with Mr. Tophat in it felt way too real like the other times she had met him in her dreams, for her to just try and deny that he didn't actually drop by last night in them, or cause them to happen.

"Fine. Better than usual at least." She said truthfully, but leaving out the dream she had. "How you doing, Graham?"

Graham looked over at Rachel kinda sunken looking, but also like his usual self other wise, it seemed. "Well I'm here like the rest of everyone else so, not bad, considering.. Luckily all the trauma and horror of the acts are all just an illusion mostly, right?"

"Sure." Rachel said, trying not to look directly at anyone as she agreed. Seeing that Graham had eaten the majority of his breakfast, Rachel decided to turn around and start eating hers, as it already felt luke warm now as she touched it. They had almost the same type of day that they had the day before, except after they showered they were given slightly different outfits to wear for that night's show. The audience wouldn't remember to notice anything different, if some of the same people showed up, but their new clothing was still a little fancier than their previous outfits, like there was a need to further impress more than what they did for yesterday's crowd. This time when Mr. Tophat saw them backstage in the red lit area, he commented on how better they looked.

"There we are, starting to get better and better.. Iv'e had flyers passed around in new locations, farther out into the city. You might be happy to know that you will be able to impress a new crowd, and with the same acts that you were in before. So all you have to do is just go along with what you endured last night, and you'll be just fine."

The group gave him looks that showed him exactly what they thought of his comments..

"Oh come on, get at least a little enthusiastic. The show last night went so well, all of you were a hit!" Mr. Tophat smiled big, giving his cane a twirl. He looked down over at Rachel noticing her nervousness, and went over to her cage. "Oh don't worry Rachel, I promise I'll be a little more nicer this time.." And with that Mr. Tophat left to go welcome the new crowd.

Everyone still felt uneasy and Gavin gave Rachel a concerned look showing his worry for her, but the show went on exactly like it did the night before, everything at least going a bit easier this time around for everyone. Rachel whose images were of strangers this time in her act and not of her friends and family, had the most relief in enduring her act this time. Even the dangerous parts of her act were toned down, Rachel reacting to what looked real, but were just illusions that couldn't harm her this time she realized. The show and the acts went on for a couple of more days, Akiko, Graham, Gavin, and Rachel all looking for a way out of being trapped in the carnival. But an escape was hard to come by when they were being so carefully watched, and while also being active "participants" in Mr. Tophat's show, when not confined to their cages. On the third day when it came time to go and be taken to the outside bathroom to change into her stage outfit, Rachel alone was lead to a different direction closer to where the trailers were, closer to where Mr. Tophat stayed. The carnival worker holding onto her stopped at one trailer and opened the door for her to go inside, while holding one of her arms with his other hand. After Rachel moved forward and stepped into the trailer her arm was released and the door was closed behind her. She walked past a chair in front of a mirror with small light bulbs all around it on top of a small white table. Just a bit further she saw a shower stall, a towel hanging right next to it. Looking to her right she saw that across from the mirror and desk area, was a stuffed bench. Rachel went over to it and undressed, leaving her clothes on the bench as she went to go shower. When she got out she dried off and looked over at the bench to find a beautiful looking dress with some accessories also lying across it now, a pair of brand new shoes right under it, sitting on the floor.

Rachel got dressed and sat down at the chair that was next to the small table and mirror. She combed her long blonde hair and applied the golden hued make up that was on the desk, that matched her glowing skin and dress. It was a long golden shade with straps at the top that were an inch across, giving her shoulders a mostly bare look. The straps went from an inch to expanding in length sideways, as the golden material stretched down to her waist in a crimped style, looking like two long and thick upside down sunflower petals against her chest, that were sewn to the waistband at the bottom. Thinner, flat straps ran down her back at the sides from the top, exposing her upper back and coming to a criss-cross in the middle, and were attached to the waist. Two stripes of the material were also attached to both the front and back cuts of the dress at her sides, helping to keep the top in place. Another thin strip of fabric was attached across to the two long pieces on her front in the middle of her chest, to help keep further exposure from happening. From her waist down to her ankles, the golden fabric covered Rachel all around, in the same crimped style as the top of the front. The shoes were two golden, medium heeled pairs which adorned her feet now, and fit perfectly, just like her dress. Rachel sat looking at her appearance in the mirror after she was done getting fully dressed. Just a couple of minutes went by before she heard a knock at the trailer door and looked over to see it opening inward. Mr. Tophat stepped through, stopping for a moment to stare at Rachel's gorgeous new look. He than walked fully into the trailer slowly, in awe of what sat before him. He moved to go bend down over her from behind, looking at the both of them in the mirror. Another large grin was across his lips, and an intense, satisfied look played in his eyes. Rachel got it then.. She was everything he wanted now with this look. Beautiful, shiny, golden like a statuette. A trophy. That's what she was, his trophy. Mr. Tophat had everything that he wanted and needed. Her, the one that had defeated him before, and now her friends, acts for a new show for his carnival, and people that were attending his show again. He definitely had the win right now, and maybe forever..

He put his hands on Rachel's shoulders which made them rise up. Her feeling his hands on her bare skin even with his gloves on felt awkward despite their new connection, Rachel still used to always feeling nothing but anger with Mr. Tophat and his actions for her to just be completely okay with his touch on her, especially from out of nowhere. But she still tolerated it, surprised on how she didn't automatically shake her shoulders to throw his hands off of her. Mr. Tophat still touching her, than squatted down closer to the floor behind Rachel, and the look on his face softened and his head turned to the right, a far away look coming into his eyes.

"For so long Iv'e sought to make my dream fully come true Rachel. I made a dire mistake the first time I tried and was given a second, and now third chance. Each time hasn't worked to get it right completely, but I at least did something instead of just walk away. All those people that were around me that didn't believe in what I was doing, didn't think I would make it with my vision.. Girls that weren't interested in what I was doing enough to be by my side.."

Mr. Tophat moved his left hand from Rachel's shoulder and wrapped his arm around her waist. Rachel went to pull him off immediately, but froze when she also saw and felt the side of his head fall against the back of hers, while she still looked in the mirror. A sad look came into Mr. Tophat's eyes while still gazing off into a distance, like he wasn't fully present in the room with her.

"Iv'e endured so much, Iv'e struggled with so many people and things just to be back in the same spot once again, trying to finish accomplishing everything." He said.

Instinctively Rachel placed her left hand over Mr. Tophat's wrist on her waist, relaxing against his hold, a feeling of remorse coming over her as she felt his grip tighten around her in anguish. The lost and hurt look in his eyes and face causing her to want to at least slightly comfort him at the moment. Feeling her hand on him, Mr. Tophat started to slowly turn his head straight into the back of Rachel's, his nose snuggling into some of the locks of her hair. He closed his eyes and breathed her in. Rachel saw his chest slowly rise and fall, felt his breath against the skin on the back of her neck as she also felt it tingle. Mr. Tophat moved his head back enough for his nose to graze the top strands of Rachel's hair as he moved his head so that his face was right next to Rachel's on her right side. He than moved his mouth up to her ear while both of them stayed looking in the mirror.

"Look at us, Rachel. So much stronger when we're together, I have now seen. And look.. So close to the same age now, we both are. My, have you grown."

Feeling an intensity in the air Rachel began to move away from Mr. Tophat, inching forward in her chair, taking her hand off of his wrist. He let her go, removing his arm from her waist and taking his other hand off of her shoulder. He stood up and moved over to Rachel's left side, squatting down to her level once again.

"Rachel, I know you hate how things are now, but it will all get better. I'll take care of you and your friends. They'll get used to this life, and you and all of them will never have to age, worry about illnesses, or annoying troubles outside of the carnival ever again."

"And stuck in cages still?" Rachel responded. "And away from families and our own dreams?"

Mr. Tophat paused for a moment. "They can matter still.. We can make everyone's dreams be acted out here in the carnival, with new acts, eventually. Maybe I can create some sort of barricade around the carnival grounds, so they won't be allowed to ever leave but still be able to walk around, at some point. I haven't started to control their minds so that I could admittedly continue to play with them for a while in their acts, but maybe if they listen to you who can maybe get them to behave, it could be easier for them. Especially since my mood has improved so much these past few days with the new show. Maybe, if when we travel soon and a family member is around in that town, and everyone's being good, I can arrange at least a little time for some kind of visitation. How's that?.." Mr. Tophat trailed off, trying at an attempt to be somewhat civil with Rachel and her concerns. "Let us just try and continue to work out the first kinks of the new carnival first. Now that I have a new good and fun show, I can work on the rides coming back next. People will love it all over again!.. Even if they won't remember it the next day.."

Mr. Tophat looked off to the side, realizing that the carnival would never be truly perfect no matter how hard he tried to make it that way, as long as the curse of forgetfulness continued to always plague his work with the carnival visitors. All he could do was be satisfied that at least he had his own carnival to be in his control once again. A place, the only place, where he felt perfectly comfortable.. He moved his hand over to Rachel's whose left hand lay on her lap and wrapped his fingers around hers, as the expression on his face took on that lost look again, his eyes looking a thousand miles away, lost in hurt over the direness of it all..

"Marcus?" Rachel said softly to him, lightly squeezing his hand.

Mr. Tophat's eyes flashed back to Rachel fast and wide open, his whole body jumping as he heard Rachel's voice say his real name out loud. He wasn't used to hearing that name of his from just anyone, and this was the first time he had ever heard her say it at all.

"I know your dream to make a place like your own carnival, to succeed in your own type of business, was something you wanted, because a lot of it was to also make your father proud. Remember, you had Bartholomew tell us the story." Marcus froze for a moment before his eyes began to slightly water as he thought about his former, years loyal, lost partner. And recalled part of his life's mission, why all of this was so important to him in the first place. It was about what he had been taught and who he had appreciated growing up, who had raised him to be proud of what he could achieve.. Rachel continued to speak to him as she pressed against the back of his fingers that were tucked under her hand that he was holding, with her thumb, giving Marcus a little support. "But because of what you have wanted and sought to make happen so much, you ignored everything involving everyone else. You've taken other people's minds, their lives, the hopes and dreams that they had, along with what their parents had for them. Can you see what I mean, now? Along the way you became a harvester of what wasn't yours. And you didn't care. You still don't. It's what made you lose the second time you tried to succeed with your destiny, after you lost it the first time, because you stopped thinking about others, and only thought about yourself. And now it's happening again. I may not know all of the challenges that you had to overcome to get your carnival started the first time, or how others treated you as you got there. But I do know that it can't work for you a third time, to keep doing the same things you've already done to make what you want to have happen for yourself. It's insane."

Marcus who had actually been quietly listening to Rachel as she spoke, grew uncomfortable as she got to the end of her explanation. Somewhere inside, he felt the harsh truthfulness of her words. And now, he reacted at the word she used to describe everything, that felt way too real about how to define it all. Insane. Marcus closed his fingers tighter around Rachel's, causing her eyes to wince in pain from the strong pressure that she felt from his squeeze. He had been looking at the floor towards the end of her lecture, and now he looked back up at her half in anger, and half in the way a hurt, scorned child would look at a person that was telling them that what they were doing that they wanted to, was completely wrong. Rachel held her breath, scared of what reaction would come next from him. Marcus stood up quickly, pulling Rachel up from her seat. The pull was so strong that Rachel bumped into his chest as she was stood quickly up, putting both of her arms up instinctively, to keep her head from hitting him. Instinctively back, Marcus wrapped his left hand around the top of Rachel's right arm to stop too big of a collision from happening. And careful again, to not drop his cane. Looking into her eyes, Rachel saw that Marcus was taking a moment to try and rationalize to being calm and steady once again. He let go of Rachel's left arm that he had also grabbed onto as he had pulled her up, and brought his hand up to her face. He pressed the back of his fingers lightly into the side of her jaw, drawing them up to her eyes. Rachel took a breath in, relaxing some, but still on alert that Marcus might do something bad out of anger still. He let her go, moving back to take hold of her right hand, as she slowly put her arms down.

"You know me so well, don't you? He said sarcastically. "Let us go now. Our visitors are waiting.. And so are your friends." Marcus said, throwing that last acknowledgment in as a gesture towards Rachel. She saw that Marcus had resigned himself to staying with his present plans for everything involving the new carnival, but at least any plans for her demise seemed to not be newly wanted at the moment. But like she had said before to her friends, they were safe, because he needed them all right now..


	11. Chapter 11

Marcus and Rachel went to the door and exited the trailer, stepping out of the doorway and down the steps. Instead of getting one of his workers to escort Rachel to the show tent, Marcus put his right arm around her, holding her left hand with his. Rachel hated how soft his jacket felt, how she wanted to lean against it, and how Marcus held her nice and gently as if they were just going for a stroll to somewhere nice for just the two of them. By the time they had gotten to the tent Marcus seemed like his usual performing self, all ready for that night's show. Mr. Tophat, just as he needed to be. Inside the tent he walked Rachel over to a cage big enough for her to stand in. But instead of silver metal, the bars were gold, and inside of the cage a pink chair with a soft looking cushion of the same color sat on it. Over and under the cage was a wooden top and bottom, decorated with fancy fixtures and designs that were painted in soft orange and pink colors. After Rachel stepped inside and the gate to the cage was locked Mr. Tophat stood back and adjusted his jacket, straightening it out as he spoke to Rachel.

"Tonight you get the special front seat to the show. And now the audience gets to see the main star, throughout the whole night."

The cage was in the ring in the right hand side, where Mr. Tophat often stood while the acts were being done on stage. But instead of darkness, the cage was under a yellow light, perfect to highlight Rachel's new look. Mr. Tophat turned to leave, heading off to the red lit zone backstage to check on the rest of the group.

"Time to make sure everything is okay backstage with everyone else before the show. See you again out here, momentarily." He told Rachel, tilting his head forward and to the side, giving her his big mischievous smile.

Just minutes after Mr. Tophat disappeared backstage he came back onto the ring to welcome the audience, and to start the show. He introduced the main highlight, having the spotlight shine down on Rachel in her golden cage. The crowd ah'd at Rachel's gorgeous appearance, seeming excited at what her part in the show was going to be. As each act started Akiko, Graham, and Gavin all came out from the backstage looking around with their eyes and moving their heads back and forth until they caught sight of Rachel. They were all clearly looking to make sure she was okay just as she was sure they were told backstage by Mr. Tophat, to calm them down when they asked where she was when she wasn't put back with them after her change into her stage outfit. The show proceeded as usual all the way up to Rachel's at the end, where a new act proceeded with her participation. It started exactly like it did in her dream with Mr. Tophat, with the snake and the birds, Rachel being let out of her own cage onstage first for the performance. Everything was going perfectly for the show that night, but backstage while Rachel was going through her new act out front, a mistake by one of the carnival workers was caught by Akiko's wandering attention. The worker that locked their cages every day and night, had carelessly put his ring of keys onto a small hook on his belt this time, instead of holding onto them by hand. It seemed that more straw had been brought to be put into the tent, and the worker needed his hands free to unload it. Akiko turned to Graham and lightly cleared her throat to try and get his attention. Graham looked at her along with Gavin, who both followed Akiko's gaze and head turn to the worker, using her hand to make a jingling motion against her side to get their attention to the worker's waist where his keys were hanging. Akiko's cage was closest to the path the worker was going back and forth through in the straw, as he brought more into the tent from the back of an old truck, that had parked near the right side of the exit. Akiko sat back on her legs and tried to seem small like she was still sitting down, until she needed to move up and forward to get to the keys on the worker's side. His focus was on the straw bails, so he didn't notice her movement enough to take attention. Akiko reached a hand out every time he passed by her, going to walk to the back of the tent with a new bail. Trying to make a lift for the keys was harder when the worker was leaving to the truck without the bail, even though he was turned away from Akiko. There was nothing to distract him. So she stayed calm and after the fifth time he passed by Akiko she finally put out her hand just in time to get her pinky finger under the metal loop of the keys and give them a small lift and pull back. Luckily the key loop didn't snag against the hook, so the lift was clean. Not noticing a thing, the worker continued onto the back of the tent with his most recent bail of straw.

"Nice work." Graham said quietly as Akiko opened the lock on her cage, keeping the door closed as she tossed the keys next to Graham's cage, and onto the straw to keep the landing quiet. She made sure to toss them by the key she used to open her cage with, so that Graham could see right away which one to use. Graham picked them up and opened the lock on his cage, placing the keys under his legs as the worker came by again to get more straw. As soon as the worker was away from them again and near the truck, Graham tossed the keys to Gavin the same way Akiko tossed them to him, and Gavin quickly opened his cage and held onto the keys along with the door of his own cage. As soon as the worker passed all of their cages with the straw again, Gavin nodded his head over to a tarp hanging against the tent wall, waiting to be thrown over the the latest bail delivery after it was all brought in. Gavin pushed the door to his cage open followed by Graham and Akiko. They quickly moved to the tarp, picked it up and ran to the worker, throwing the tarp over him as he was turning away from the stacks of straw. He stumbled and fell against the straw stacks that tumbled over him after. The spell cast with Mr. Tophat's cane had him so strongly under such a mesmerized spell that the worker didn't bother to yell out for help, as none of the workers seemed to never speak, just move mechanically under instruction. He just tried to move against the tarp and the bails of straw that had fallen on him, to try and get free all alone. The sound of gasps could be heard from the main ring on the other side of the tent. Gavin looked over in that direction, knowing it was from Rachel's act. Akiko put her right hand on Gavin's shoulder.

"Not now, we'll get her as soon as we can find how to get out of the carnival." She took her hand off Gavin as he than looked over to the truck with the straw. He ran over to it and got into the driver's seat and started to try to see if any of the keys on the metal loop would start the truck. Akiko and Graham got in from the passenger side, closing the door. By the time Gavin had tried the seventh key on the ring he felt Graham put a hand on his, having reached over Akiko to get his attention.

"He's starting to get up, let's go try another truck, I don't think any of those keys are going to work on this one!" He said, looking back and forth from Gavin to the worker getting up from the ground inside the tent, having moved away the tarp and bails of straw that had been on him.

Gavin deciding to not try the other keys and to just leave to help remain lost to everyone on the carnival grounds, opened the driver's door to the truck and told Akiko and Graham to get out. They quickly did and they all started to run off to the other part of the carnival where the workers seemed to store things, as they heard clapping coming from the main tent as Rachel's act continued on..

Rachel was in the last part of her act, mirrors used to make double images. The audience seemed appreciative of the whole act Rachel was helping to perform, a break from the horror of the other acts performed earlier for that night, even if some of Rachel's act also contained some frights. Mr. Tophat smiled big and laughed at times, especially when the audience got spooked and laughed at themselves for getting so scared with some parts of the act. With the positive response from the crowd, Mr. Tophat was elated with the new act he had created for Rachel that he could also join in on. She was his shining star..

Gavin, Akiko and Graham carefully snuck around the carnival grounds trying not to get caught out of their cages and looking around. They stayed near the ground taking turns to look around he corners of each tent they moved to, as they looked for the one where another truck could be parked. After moving around the fifth tent the group found the one that was big enough to hold much bigger things inside than the others. After they waited for a few of the carnival workers to leave the area they went around the tent to where the opening flap was, and went inside. Items and tools that were used for the carnival were piled in. And at the far end of the tent was exactly what they were looking for, another truck. It had wooden planks on the side almost like the other truck, being another vehicle used for transporting goods. The group ran over to the truck and climbed inside again, all except Graham, who stayed outside to keep a look out for anyone that he might hear coming towards the tent as they got near. Gavin still hanging onto the keys, started to try each one on the ring again, hoping that at least one of them was going to start the truck..

Rachel took a curtsy to the audience back in the main tent, in appreciation for their presence and enjoyment of her act, just as Mr. Tophat instructed her to do as he himself took a bow, as her act for the show was over. As the crowd started to get up from the stands to leave, Mr. Tophat guided Rachel back to her cage onstage by one of her hands, holding it until she was completely inside and locked in after. Mr. Tophat was the only one who didn't need to carry a single key on him, all he had to do was give a tap with his cane to get into any locked up place he needed to get into.

"Good job Rachel, I knew the crowd would love you and your new act. And you performed everything so well." He told her, sounding like there was magic to his voice as he spoke to her, one hand holding onto one of the bars of her cage. "I'm going to go see the last of the crowd out, I'll be back shortly." Mr. Tophat let go of the bar he was holding onto and moved away from the cage, going over to see out the rest of the visitors to the show, twirling his cane in his left hand and starting to thank them for coming before he even fully reached them. Rachel looked over to the direction of where she knew her friends were being kept, beyond the backstage of the ring. She wondered what they thought of her being onstage in her new cage and away from them, while she waited for Mr. Tophat to return and take them back to the tent they stayed in..

In the big storage tent Gavin tried the ninth key on the ring. Like the other truck none of the keys worked so far to start it, but there was at least three more keys to go. Graham suddenly pulled open the passenger side door and quickly jumped inside the truck.

"A group of workers are coming, we need to go!" He said hurriedly, looking over to the side of the tent that he was just at, where large shadows could be seen coming closer to the tent. Gavin looked down at the keys and grabbed the twelfth and finale key on the ring, having a better feeling about it than the tenth and eleventh keys he still had left to try. He jammed the key into the ignition and turned it, relieved to hear the engine start up this time. He turned and looked out the back window of the truck and pulled out backwards, heading for the tent's only exit out, just as the shadows of the carnival workers closed in around the tent. As the truck backed out of the tent two of the carnival workers almost got hit, as they were only a foot away from the tent's exit. Graham and Akiko gave out a short scream when they saw how close the workers had gotten, as they were just right outside their window as the truck passed by. Looked like the worker with the keys that had been stuck under the straw and tarp had managed to gather a group to find and go after the escapees after fully freeing himself. Gavin backed up a little farther before turning the wheel to the truck, trying to avoid hitting other workers that were closing in further. He put his foot down on the gas and went forward when it was clear enough, making a left turn around the tent they had just escaped from and headed towards the main tent to go get Rachel..

Rachel now all alone in the tent, was leaning her head against the bars of her new cage, her hands now wrapped around the bars near her head as she looked at the lock on the cage. It was just as strong and sturdy as the other cage she had been in, just with a pretty design over it now. And of course nothing was left around for her to try and break, or damage it in any way. She looked up at the exit Mr. Tophat had went through waiting for him to return when she heard screeching wheels just outside the tent on her left. There was a flap on that side of the tent that was used to cover a small doorway sized entrance there, used by the workers to enter the tent only when needed. It was away from the stands and lighting just enough for the audience not to notice it, so that performers and things could be brought in without causing a distraction. Rachel's eyes fully widened up when saw Gavin and Akiko come through it, looking back at the back stage area and than back at them, like they had just performed their own amazing appearing magic act.

"HOW?" She asked as Akiko and Gavin got to her cage.

"We managed to get past and put one over on the guy with the keys to the cages. I still got em', we're getting out of here." Gavin quickly explained.

Akiko was looking around obviously keeping a look out for any sign of Mr. Tophat. "Where is he?" She asked Rachel.

"He went to go see out the audience members that were here tonight. He went out the main entrance."

Akiko quickly but carefully went over to the main entrance to take a peek outside as Gavin looked down at the keys trying to remember which out of the few he was looking at was the one that opened the cage Iocks again. Akiko was back in under a minute after taking a look out of the main entrance for Mr. Tophat, now trying to help Gavin move a little faster. "He's close, still talking to the crowd outside.. Here it's this one!" Akiko told Gavin pointing out which key opened the cages after noticing his confusion. "I kept my eye on that one from the time it locked my cage earlier, to while I was trying to lift the whole ring set it was on off of our cage keeper. Hurry let's go!" She said looking back to the main entrance of the tent, still on guard for Mr. Tophat's return.

Gavin shoved the correct key in the lock of the cage unlocked and unlatched it, pulling the door open and taking hold of one of Rachel's arms, pulling her out of the cage. Everyone than ran out of the tent through the small entrance and jumped into the truck. Graham moved over from the driver's seat after he was now done keeping an eye on the truck, and let everyone in. He moved over to as close to the passenger door as he could get, to make room. With everyone inside of the truck Gavin closed his door and hit the gas, heading towards the area that he saw was the carnival entrance with some of the people that had caught the show had been leaving through, as he saw when he was driving to the main tent minutes earlier. Rachel looked back at the main tent and saw a worker with Mr. Tophat, running around from the side. Mr. Tophat was yelling something, running as fast as he could towards the truck. She turned back around and saw the other carnival workers running towards the truck through the front windshield, looking like they were going to try and block the truck from going anywhere else. Gavin sped up more and made a turn to the right to drive down to the exit of the carnival, before the workers could get closer. A worker coming out of nowhere suddenly jumped in front of the truck as it drove towards the exit.

Gavin, Rachel, Akiko and Graham all screamed as Gavin made a quick turn to the right side with the wheel to avoid running into the worker. The sudden fast turn made the truck lean so severely to the side that it almost toppled over. At the last second the truck fell back down to being on all four wheels again, causing it and everyone inside to heavily bounce against the ground. Seeing that they were about to hit a large metal pole that was helping to hold up an enormous flag that had a picture of Mr. Tophat in front of a big tent on it, and was stretched out across the carnival's entrance to help advertise the show, Gavin swerved to the left at the last second, hitting the side of the pole as the side of the truck scraped against it as it moved on. The pole pushed out from it's sturdy place in the ground and fell back, pulling on the flag tied to it and taking it, and the other pole the flag was tied to towards the ground with it. As the truck made it past the carnival entrance the flag fell over the carnival workers and Mr. Tophat, just as they had all made it to the carnival's entrance and Mr. Tophat was about to point his cane out out at the truck. Out of the carnival grounds and now out onto the road, Gavin pushed his foot down on the gas pedal harder than he had before, speeding away. Rachel looked back again through the back window of the truck and saw fumbling movements under the flag that had fallen over the workers and Mr. Tophat, still inside the carnival. As the truck moved quickly away from the carnival and trees began to cover up the view of it, Rachel thought she could hear the sound of her name being screamed into the night. The scream sounded excruciating, like it was being shouted out in some kind of pain..


	12. Chapter 12

After they had gotten out of the woods and were on the way to a main street, Graham was the first to say anything since their escape. "Cool, were out. Where do we go now? He knows about our houses and where we live. He'll find us again, quick."

"He doesn't know about my house." Gavin said. "It's farther away. We can go there, my dad's on a business trip anyways." Gavin got to the main street and turned down the direction that was going towards his house..

After Mr. Tophat and the carnival workers got out of the unintentional flag trap at entrance of the carnival, Mr. Tophat picked his hat up from off the ground and dusted it off before placing it back on his head, grateful that the visitors to the carnival were already gone.

"ROLL THIS UP!" He yelled at the workers. He stormed away, leaving the workers to take care of the giant flag as he went to his trailer. When he got inside he slammed the door shut and slammed his right hand against the top of his dresser as he let his hat fall onto it after he moved it from his head. He sat down and looked at his reflection in the mirror as he took breaths so heavy that his whole body practically moved in and out, his hands curled into fists.

"THATS IT!" He said, face red with rage. "No more chances, no more needing them, no more them AT ALL!" Mr. Tophat slammed his fists on the dresser one more time before leaving his trailer to find another set of keys to magically locate the truck Akiko, Graham, Gavin, and Rachel had left in..

Meanwhile the gang arrived at Gavin's dad's house. Gavin got the spear key from under a nearby rock and let everyone inside. He turned on the lights and everyone sat down, except Rachel.

"Are you cold?" Gavin asked looking at Rachel in her dress, arms folded over each other.

"What?.. Um no, it's pretty warm, it is summer. I guess I'm just a little shook up after everything just now." She answered somewhat uneasy.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you were cold even with this season. I mean damn." Akiko said giving a look to Rachel's dress that hinted strongly at about how there wasn't much material at the top.

"You could borrow a pair of my pajamas later." Gavin told Rachel.

"Thanks." Rachel said, finally moving to a seat in an armchair.

"What do we do now?" Akiko asked out loud. "It's not like we can just walk away from this."

"There's always a way to defeat a villain the second time they come around. We just have to find out what that would mean for Mr. Tophat." Graham said, using his knowledge of horror films. "He doesn't have any help except for those mostly mindless workers at the carnival. We can distract them again and maybe throw a net over him and smash his cane again. Right Rachel?"

Rachel looked up from the floor in thought after hearing her name, while she mildly listened to Graham. "Uh, sure. It could work I guess." She answered him, shrugging.

"Okay so I guess we go and get some rope tomorrow with a net, and see what else we could use to distract the workers." Akiko said.

"Alright, I'll look for something for us to eat in the fridge so we can get some rest before tomorrow." Gavin said, getting up and going to the kitchen.

After they ate some four day old pizza, Rachel went into the bathroom to change. After she was done and opened the door she saw Graham heading her way to visit the bathroom after. He looked at Rachel with a concerned look on his face.

"Hey. Sooo.. You seem kinda lost right now. It must be crazy having to go through all of this, and having to be the center of HIS attention again." Graham said, referring to Mr. Tophat.

"Oh yeah, it's been something. I'm just glad everyone here is okay."

"Don't worry, we'll get him again, for good this time. We'll make sure everything is completely gone. The carnival, the workers, his cane. Nothing will be unturned." Graham said, sounding assured.

"Well, I think this time we may have to try harder. Marcus is going to be really outraged this time around when we see him again. More than before.."

Graham looked at Rachel with a stunned and confused look on his face. "So.. When did you start calling him Marcus?" He asked her.

"Um.." Rachel paused for awhile thinking of what to say, caught off guard herself. "Well, it is his real name, it just came out for some reason."

"Okaaayy." Graham responded unsure.

"Alright there's blankets and pillows on the floor in the living room. We'll sleep there tonight." Gavin said, coming up from behind them.

"Oh, good." I'm going to go lay down." Rachel said moving around Graham and going past Gavin into the living room.

That night Rachel looked out one of the windows to the living room to drift off to sleep. Everything was quiet and still as she stared out at the clear, starlit sky. Everyone around was asleep looking comfortable and resting soundly. She thought about what happened that night and how just hours earlier they had all been at the carnival still. She thought about her act that night and about how much she liked her new one. She thought about how much she appreciated the extra effort that Marcus had put into at least trying to to make things better for her and her friends. But than she thought about how cruel all the acts were for her friends that Marcus made them go through still. Rachel closed her eyes to darkness and in her dreams she caught visions, images of events and the people she knew that were, and would be involved in them.

She dreamt about everyone being in the carnival, about everyone's hardship with having to be involved with Mr. Tophat's world. About his pursuit of all of them. About everything he told her while they were in his trailer before the last show, and about the past that Marcus endured before he was Mr. Tophat. About things all of them would endure in the future if back in his hold.. And than flashes of images that looked like they were apart of the future, came into her head. Rachel first saw the nightmare she had endured while knowing of Mr. Tophat's existance with the past and present being shown, and than saw images of a family that she recognized as her ancesters from the merry-go-round incident with Marcus, their deaths, and the beginning of his self destruction. She saw the twisted deal he made with the evil entity, her childhood, their first meeting, and her connection with it all. She re-lived his downfall by her hands, and than how she also tried to enlighten him in the trailer, in the dress he created for her as they were united again. She saw terror in the eyes of her friends from a demise yet to come. Before Rachel woke up from her sleep startled by her dream, she saw quick images of a happier time with people smiling at the carnival in the sun, happy performers all around in costumes. In a large tent Mr. Tophat smiled good naturedly. As he entertained a big crowd of carnival visitors, he turned to flash a bigger smile at a person that wasn't too far away from him, a figure resembling a girl. Rachel's eyes opened wide as one last image appeared in her vision. A shadowy figure came out from around a section of stands in the main carnival tent, with something occurring at a different time. Hidden at first by darkness, they stepped out into the open space of the tent, and a spotlight turned to shine down on them. Mr. Tophat looked over at the figure, a stunned look on his face that others also held, from people that Rachel couldn't clearly see on the stage..

Rachel saw that she was looking up, facing the ceiling as she now became fully awake, her heart beating fast. She sat up, placing both of her hands down on either side of her waist. Ahe calmed herself by breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth for a few minutes as she recalled her dream/nightmare. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Mr. Tophat had nothing to do with this one. Everything that went through her head just now was all on her, or something else. It felt like she was being shown, told about some paths that had been taken either resulting in something good, or bad. Rachel looked around at her friends sleeping peacefully, even if it was on the floor of the house. She felt a decision coming closer that ahe realized had been looming over her ever since HE had come back, and everyone else close to her had become more involved than ever before. Rachel looked over at her gold dress and shoes that she had placed on the armchair that she had been sitting in earlier, before she laid back down and turned her head to look back out the window. More thoughts went through her head as she tried to go back to sleep, finding herself going back to hearing Marcus's scream as they had escaped the carnival for the moment, from earlier. She found herself wondering if he was okay, what was happening with him right now. And how was he going to find her with everyone this time, if they didn't try to go and stop him first..

In his trailer Mr. Tophat sat at his dresser in his chair, looking into his mirror. His hands were together in front of him, fingers tapping against each other. His gloves were on, his hat sat on his head, his cane laid against the dresser right next to him. A set of keys sat in front of him on the dresser, also sitting right in front of the dresser's mirror where Mr. Tophat's reflection shown in it. His eyes and the expression that was on his face showed a cold mood and anger, hot boiling just beneath the surface. As Mr. Tophat stared at his reflection in the mirror taping his fingers together he thought about everything that had occurred between him and all of the Midnight Society members that he had to deal with. They were there, all there, most of them anyway. All under his control to help him start over again. All there to help him create something amazing like what he used to have. It was all going so well. Then they had to ruin it, again.

And now SHE was gone. Her, the one that could have saved it all, more than once. Her who has decided to destroy his dream. Twice now. She was going to be the center of everything. She was going to have the honor of being his main star, when she didn't deserve so much of the kindness he had given her. And now she was gone. Left him like it was nothing. Left with her friends racing away from the carnival, breaking away from him without a care. He thought about their time together. Thought about how nice it was to have Rachel around, despite his anger towards her he had felt for so long. How he had now felt more connected to her this time. How he liked hearing her talk, even if it wasn't about things he didn't want to hear. How nice and soft her skin and hair was. How much he recognized her beauty now that she was older. But he could also push her away, and just focus on all the bad things she had done to him. Not be mindful of anything good he had with her.. And so he was done now. Done trying to capture them and keep them in the carnival. Done with trying to put any type of kind, or merciful foot forward. They were all finished. As soon as he had the group in his grasp again he would make sure they would disappear from anywhere, permanently. Even HER. He had used his cane on the extra keys. He had located where the truck was. He knew how to bring it back. It was his move now..

When everyone woke up at Gavin's house in the morning, there were shirts, jackets, and towels on every mirror in the house.

"I assume this is because of the whole reflection thing Mr. Tophat can do?" Gavin asked Rachel.

Rachel nodded as Akiko said, "I'm glad someone remembered. It's amazing he hasn't tried to come through any of them already."

"So, we still sticking with the plan that was mentioned last night?" Graham asked, stretching as he got up from his sleeping area in the floor.

"For now it's the only thing we can do. Try and catch Mr. Tophat off guard, and brake his cane again. It's the only way we know how to stop him for good, we'll just stay around after to make sure he's really all gone this time, no trace left." Gavin said.

"Alright.. So I guess we'll have to go to a sporting, or camping store in a bit than?" Akiko said.

"Let's get some breakfast first. Come on, we have three types of cereal." Gavin said, leading the way to the kitchen.

Throughout breakfast Rachel stayed quiet inwardly, keeping as calm as she could, waiting for a clue on what to do next. After breakfast everyone put their bowels in the sink and Akiko grabbed the keys to the truck and looked over at Graham.

"Okay lets go drive over to your house first. Akiko said to Graham, grabbing the carnival truck keys off the kitchen counter where Gavin had left them. All our stuff is over there, including our wallets. Than we'll go get what we need from the store so we can get all this finally over with. You wanna drive, or do you want me to?" She asked him.

"What, your going already and in the truck? Won't you get spotted? I mean Mr. Tophat could have people looking for it right now. With any of us to try and find in it." Rachel intervened, trying to not to seem strange about anything.

"Well we have to. We'll just try and move quick, we have to make a move before Mr. Tophat does. Hopefully he also locked the door behind him when he took us all from Graham's house, and we won't find everything in there, including all of our stuff gone." Akiko said headed over to the front door of the house, Graham following after. Rachel watched them leave not knowing what else to say, but still trying to think of something, when she felt Gavin put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, more than likely Akiko will keep an eye out for anything around them that may be trouble, and they can ditch the truck if they have to. I don't know where my car keys are, but I think I can see if that older car my Dad's been leaving in our garage can be started up. Maybe I just need to put some oil in it, and check a few other things to make sure everything's going to be able to run okay so Akiko or Graham won't have to try and hot wire my car that's at his house still, hopefully. We can go and take that older car to the carnival and use that instead of the truck from there, or my car to get around. It will be less recognizable at least. I plugged in my old cell phone to charge up. We can call either Akiko or Graham's phone in around half an hour after I look at that car and they get to the house, so we can check in on them."

Rachel just nodded her head again forcing a relieved smile, turning her head away in thought. That's when her and Gavin heard the sound of the carnival truck starting outside, and saw a flash of light come from right where the truck was parked in front of the house outside, through one of the windows. They both ran out the front door of the house and saw that the truck was gone.. Along with Akiko and Graham. On the ground where the truck had just been, lay a small white card that had words on it in bold, black writing that said,

"I have taken back what is mine. And now you will want back what is yours. Come back to the carnival soon, or your friends will be no more."

Gavin had read the card along with Rachel after she had picked it up. He turned around and ran back into the house, Rachel going in after him. Upstairs, Gavin went over to a drawer in his dad's room and opened it, taking out a key chain with only one key on it. He turned to Rachel and said,

"I'm going to take a look at the car in the garage. Stay in the house for now in case Mr. Tophat decides to do something else. You might be safer in here. And, at least one of us might make it longer if the other gets caught. Just keep an eye out.. One of us may have to try and save everyone else.." Gavin said that last part in hesitation, not wanting to say a possible dark reality that may have to be faced, out loud.

Gavin left the room as Rachel stayed in place, her mind frantically trying to think of what to do. A sound suddenly came from another room. Rachel went into the hallway to listen to where the sound was coming from. She went into Gavin's room after hearing it again. The sound was Gavin's old ring tone to an older phone he used to use. Recognizing it she went over to Gavin's own dresser top and picked up the phone. It was barely charged but still strong enough with recently given energy to turn on and show notifications. One new one, along with some old notifications were on the screen. They were from Louise. Along with some calls, she had left some messages too. There luckily was no password clearance or other lock put on the phone at the moment. Rachel pressed on the notification of Louise's missed call and held the phone to her ear. Louise's phone rang a few times, than she answered.

"Hello, Gavin?!" Came Louise's voice through the phone. "Where have you and everyone been, I've tried getting a hold of anyone from the group for like two days now! Where is everyone?!"

"Louise! This is Rachel. Look, I can't fully explain everything over the phone. Just know that there's been trouble involving Mr.Tophat. Me and Gavin are okay, but Akiko and Graham are in trouble. Are you still away, or are you close?"

"There was a pause as Louise seemed to be taking in what she just heard. "Yeah, I'm close. That's one of the reasons I was trying to get a hold of one of us so bad. I mean, other than trying to see if everyone was okay. I was able to get some time off from work to come hang out with the group finally. Luckily I still had Gavin's old cell phone number left in my phone to try and reach out more. I'm here in town, at the airport now."

"Okay! Get a taxi to Gavin's house, I'll be here. Get ready to bring your things into the house and than leave right after. I, really need your help Louise. I swear I'll explain everything when you get here."

"Alright I guess I'll see you in like, twenty minutes then." Louise responded, sounding confused and somewhat exasperated by the fresh news now from Rachel, with everything sounding crazy.

Rachel hung up, her mind spinning, a rush of adrenaline moving through her. This was the answer she was waiting for. The decision she was weighing on all this time for days now, finally had a conclusion. And Louise just helped provide the answers to the dillema on how to make everything come together. Rachel just hoped that it would all work as planned..

"How's it going?" Rachel asked Gavin as she had gone into the garage, right after talking to Louise.

"Everything looks okay enough to run for at least awhile, basic mechanic things just need to be taken care of. Thankfully my dad has some cans of oil and some gas stored here in the garage. I'm going to fill the car up and pump up the tires. The car's been covered up, so hopefully everything will be okay enough to at least make it to the carnival."

"I'll go back into the house and keep doing a look out for anything else strange that could happen.. Do you need help with anything?" Rachel asked carefully, hoping that any help she could offer wouldn't have to be much.

"No, I think I've got it. This should just take around half an hour. Let me know if anything happens inside the house. I don't think Mr. Tophat knows exactly where we are yet, but who knows for sure since he was able to locate the truck."

"Okay, I'll go back inside than." Rachel went back into the house and nervously waited for Louise to arrive. In the meantime she went into the bathroom and quickly showered. She threw the pajamas she wore back on after she toweled off, and untangled her hair with a brush she found near the sink, after she removed some hair from it and rinsed it off. She put some toothpaste on part of a paper towel she had got from the kitchen and ran it over her teeth, and around her mouth and gums, swishing some of the toothpaste in her mouth with some water to help clean in between her teeth. To keep her feet clean Rachel had put her gold shoes from the night before on. After Rachel had cleaned up she went to the living room window and looked out, waiting for Louise to show. As soon as she saw a taxi pull up to the house, Rachel opened the living room door and raced out before any car horn could be hit. She helped Louise bring her bags into the house, explaining what needed to be done as she did.

"Okay we need to hurry as much as possible. Gavin is in the garage trying to fix up an old car. We need to get back before he's done with it. We're just going to make a couple of stops."

"Stops to where? And are you going to tell me more about what's going on?" Louise asked, feeling completely lost.

"I'll explain in the taxi. I need your help to make sure everyone will be okay."

"And your going out in that?" Louise asked Rachel after taking a short moment to look at what she was wearing, especially with her shoes.

"I have to stay looking how Gavin last saw me, for now. I'm supposed to be just keeping an eye out for things in the house. As soon as we get back I need to go back into the garage to check on him, come on!" Rachel took one of Louise's arms and pulled her back out of the house, and back into the taxi..


	13. Chapter 13

They first stopped at Rachel's school where she got an attendant to use a skeleton key to open it up, using the excuse of going to join some friends in an extended vacation, and lost her key at a party. Even though the attendant didn't recognize her because of the spell Mr. Tophat had cast, Rachel's knowledge of the number of her dorm room, her kindness, and her assurance that everything in the room would be exactly as how she described it all being in it when they got there, got the attendant to open her door. When the attendant saw that everything in the room was just how Rachel described it, he left her to herself and went back to his place in the front of the lobby of the dorm. Rachel went to her closet and pushed back her clothes that were hanging on the top bar until she came to a jacket with pockets on it. She pulled a small purse out of one of the pockets and grabbed a pair of some short, nice black dress boots that her mom had bought her for her last birthday, that were sitting on the closet floor.

Before she left Rachel went to her dresser and pulled out a few undergarments from one of her drawers and hurried back to the taxi, where Louise was looking up the closest fabric store in the area on her phone. After Rachel got back inside the taxi her and Louise went to that store and picked out, bought four rolls of fabric, some measuring tape, a pair of scissors with some sewing supplies, and a sewing machine. Along the way between the stops, Rachel explained what had happened in the past week with her dreams and intuitions that Mr. Tophat was coming back, how he was actually alive and of course not happy with what happened to him when they all last saw him before his return, the kidnappings, the new carnival and the group's acts, their escape.. And now how she was going to make everything okay and solve everything having to do with Mr. Tophat, after she had some more intuitions and insights with her and Mr. Tophat's connections.

Louise saw the taxi driver throw a curious look over at Rachel from the rear view mirror of the taxi, like he thought that Rachel might be crazy because of her story, and than she turned back to look at Rachel, like maybe that idea wasn't too far off..

"This is crazy." Louise told Rachel, not knowing what else to say at the moment.

"But it'll all work out." Rachel said confidentially. "It has to, so many things that I've seen and felt have been directing me to this end. And in order to take care of everything once and for all, I have to follow it."

Louise saw that under Rachel's determination there was also some fear and worry behind it. But Rachel also looked ready to move ahead and not look back. Like she had made her final decision with the matter. So Louise went back with Rachel to Gavin's house and paid the taxi driver, thanking him for his help in getting them around, and helped take all of the items they had in the taxi into the house with Rachel. Everything was taken to a spare room upstairs that Gavin's dad used for storing things, and Louise stayed and waited in the room with their selections as Rachel went to the garage to check on Gavin.

Rachel opened the garage door and stepped in, seeing no one around.

"Gavin?" She called out loudly.

The driver's side door to the car Gavin was working on opened and he got out, going over to Rachel. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, how's the car?"

"Well I had to connect some things and than go through some junk in the garage before I found a plastic cone to pour the gasoline into the tank. But it's been running for a few minutes now, I think it'll make it."

"Look.." Rachel hesitated. I saw a car pass by the house a couple of times that had a guy looking this way, while I was keeping a look outside from the windows. I don't know if it's anyone that Mr. Tophat sent to look for us, but I think you should go get the supplies yourself and than head back here. I think you were right in thinking that it would be best to keep in mind about how one of us should try and stay out of being captured by not being in the same place together."

Gavin thought about this for a few seconds, but than shook his head. "No, if there's a chance that someone may be stalking the house than it's better for you to just come with me. Than we can go straight to the carnival after." Gavin had a serious, no other option look in his eyes that Rachel knew she wasn't going to be able to sway easily. No choice, but to have to mention Louise now.

"Wait.. Louise, she called earlier. I heard your old phone go off in your room. She was able to come after all. She should be at the airport soon. I told her I would wait for her to get here. Someone has to be here to meet her, and tell her what's going on. Besides, I would be the most noticeable one out of all of us out there that Mr. Tophat, or his men would be looking for, it's better if I just stay and wait for Louise to get here. You can go, get what's needed, and get back here right after. And than we'll have Louise to help us out now."

Gavin sighed and closed his eyes for a second before looking at Rachel for a moment. "Alright, I'll go to a shop that I'm pretty sure sells camping gear that could have large nets for fishing there. I'll move fast to try and be back here as soon as I can to pick the both of you up. "I'm going to go get my credit card." Gavin went up the short set of stairs and and back into the house. Rachel hoped that Louise wouldn't be discovered as she stayed in the storage room still, as she turned her head away from Gavin going back into the house, and to the car. Her eyes moved back and forth as she surveyed it. Than she went over and stooped down in front of one of the wheels. She got back up after some seconds and went back to where she was standing right before Gavin had left. He came back into the garage and went over to Rachel.

"I left my phone in case you need it. Whatever happens while I'm gone just be careful. Get Louise into the house quick when she gets here. See you soon." Gavin gave Rachel a hug which she gave back, hanging onto him longer than she usually would. Gavin ran his hand over her back for a moment before stepping back.

"It's going to be okay. We're going to take care of this, it'll all be over soon."

"Yeah." Rachel said back heavily.

Gavin gave Rachel a kiss on the cheek before going over to the car and getting in. "Be back soon. Oh, can you get the garage door?" He said, before shutting the door to the car.

"Sure." Rachel said going over to the button near the garage door that would open it. After pushing it the door went up, and Gavin drove through. Rachel stayed near the door watching Gavin drive away down the street, as the garage door closed back down after she pushed the button again.

Inside the house as Rachel went back in, she opened the door to the storage room, thankful that Louise wasn't found out. Louise looked at Rachel, feeling empathetic towards the tears that she saw welling up in Rachel's eyes.

"You okay?" She asked gingerly.

Wiping away a tear that had just rolled down her cheek, Rachel nodded her head. "It'll be fine." She smiled weakly after. "Let's get to work.."

Louise and Rachel went into the kitchen and started to set up the sewing machine, spools of thread, scissors, and rolls of fabric that they had bought from the fabric store. The machine and tools went on the table and the fabrics went draped across the furniture in the living room that was right across from the kitchen. Louise started threading the sewing machine while Rachel started to cut the fabrics according to her measurements, which Louise had taken right after they had finished setting everything up. After cutting the fabrics Rachel would take them to the kitchen table for Louise to sew together. Her time away at her fashion school showed how much Louise had learned, and how successful she was doing there. Louise was quick pinning the needles and fabric together, lining everything up to go through the needle on the sewing machine, than checking for any mistakes to correct. Her keen focus made for very few mistakes, and she only needed to make some minor adjustments when she would have Rachel try on some of the pieces she had worked on, to have complete accuracy. Louise and Rachel moved quick, helping each other when needed and putting together a creation that would help more than Rachel herself, to help create a best possible ending to all the trouble around everyone..

As Gavin drove to the sporting goods store he looked out for anything, or anyone unusual, something that might be out of the ordinary. The car seemed to move pretty well, not causing any trouble to handle at all, until Gavin felt a jostle in one side of the car. He pulled over to the side of a curb and got out. The problem felt like something wrong was happening at the back side of the car. He went over to take a look and after seeing one of the wheels he saw the problem. One of the tires was flat. Gavin went over to to take a closer look and noticed the cap to that tire was missing. He was sure he had placed each cap back on every tire after he had added some more air in each one, back in the garage. Maybe that one had popped off while he was driving. A couple of blocks ahead of where he was at, Gavin knew of a gas station with an air pump outside that he could use. It would put him off the location to the store he needed to go to, but at least he could also get some more gas, as he wasn't sure that the small amount he had in the tank would last as long as needed. Gavin let out a heavy sigh as he shut off the car, closed the driver's side door, and put his hands on the back of the car outside as started to push it down the street to the gas station, using a lot of his strength to get the car rolling..

Louise was working on one of the last parts of Rachel's outfit, as Rachel was sitting across from her at the kitchen table, writing on some more paper.

"Think they'll understand?" Louise asked, as she saw Rachel struggling to write.

"I'm hoping they will. I feel like I almost need them to after everything, to know that this is what needed to be done, and that they'll be okay afterwards, understanding what needed to be done to stop all the trouble for good. That it's complicated what I feel, but that it's all real and makes sense more than anything to me.. And your handling all of this surprisingly well for what I've been speaking."

"I'm still mostly back at home thinking about how I can't believe that I was able to find a way to make it here, and than still trying to completely take in what has been happening, and that I'm here now. I'm sure some kind of breakdown and panic attack of some sort will eventually come around for me, for now I'm mostly moving mechanically."

"And it looks like your almost done." Rachel said looking at Louise holding up a finished piece of the outfit.

"Yup. Better finish up over there, your going to need to try all this on soon."

Rachel put the pen she was holding to the paper she was writing on and just let out everything she wanted to say to all the MS members, her friends. She cut to the chase and only paused to take a bit more time to write what she needed to at the very end. She folded the paper over and left it on the table. She got up to try her new outfit on, and than remembered another thing as it suddenly just popped into her head. She looked as Louise with an unsure, yet pleading face as she looked to ask for another favor.

"Hey Louise, what kind of make up did you happen to bring with you?"..

Gavin after half an hour, managed to get the car to the gas station. Luckily for his arms and back, another man that was passing by on a run came over to help him out for awhile. After he was close enough to the gas station, Gavin pushed the car up to one of the gas pumps and went inside to the convenience store across from it to look for something to help keep the air in the car's deflated tire. He found a tiny pack of of bicycle tire caps on a small stand in the store he hoped would work well enough for the car, and paid for those and some extra gas. The air pump was next to the gas pump where he was parked at outside, and so after filling up the tank with gas and the one tire with air, Gavin was finally off to the shop he was sure would have what was needed to help defeat Mr. Tophat..

Louise helped tie Rachel's hair up with some black ribbon while she put on make up that she was using from one of Louise's compacts. She put on colors that she knew would match and flatter her look with her new outfit that she was now in, careful not to get any of the make up onto it. When they were done Rachel stood up from sitting on the kitchen chair she was on, moved it aside, and turned to Louise.

"So.." Rachel said nervously. "How do I look?"

"Fantastic. Crazy, but fantastic."

Rachel ran a hand gently over the top of her head, appreciating Louise's help with her hair and giving Louise a thankful smile for everything she had done, when Rachel's eyes suddenly grew big.

"A HAT! I need a hat, it would make everything perfect, it would be the most important thing! How could I forget?!.. What am I going to do?" Rachel sighed heavily.

Louise paused for a moment thinking, than went over to one of her bags in the living room and pulled out a black, classic derby hat, which had a lengthy embossed design of gold colored forget-me-nots on a black ribbon that ran around the hat, that had a slightly turned up brim on one of it's sides.

"I bought this hat from a shop because it was nice, fancy looking, and could match just about any outfit imaginable for a quick, classy look for your head." Louise said, further showing her fashion knowledge. "I have been fighting the feeling inside to try and stop you from what your planning, but I think the fact that I just happened to bring this here with me, somewhat proves at least, that maybe your plan was meant to be all along.." Louise took her hat and placed it on Rachel's head. "There you go, it's yours now, think of it as a goodbye gift from me."

Rachel held back tears so that her makeup wouldn't run. "Wait here.." She told Louise as she went to get her gold dress and the shoes that matched, that were now with the dress on a chair in the living room. She also got her small purse and put it on top of the dress, as she went back to Louise.

"The dress and shoes are from the carnival, and I won't have much left but change in the purse after I take money out for a cab back there, but I want you to have it all. Thank you for helping me, especially considering all the craziness, and with such insanely short notice about everything."

Louise looked at Rachel's sincere face and not wanting to turn away her friend's gifts to her, as she felt a little guilty accepting them, looked over the dress and purse in Rachel's arms, and the shoes in one of her hands and asked her, "Let me guess, made with magic most of it?"

"Yup. And only worn once. The dress at least. Maybe you can find your own use for everything." Just then, the taxi that Rachel had called could be seen pulling up in front of the house, through the large kitchen window. "Alright, wish me luck. Tell everyone, especially Gavin, that I'm really sorry and that I did what am going to do, because I knew it's what needed to be done for everyone. And that if I can one day, I'll try and be in contact with all of you once again, somehow." Rachel took the small purse back from Louise for a second to get out the last of the bills that was left from it after the small material shopping spree they had gone on, and than gave it back to Louise.

"Thanks for everything again." Rachel said, hugging Louise for a moment. "Bye." Rachel turned and went out the front door to the house and into the taxi outside. It pulled away as Louise herself had went to the kitchen window to watch Rachel get in and leave maybe for good, wishing her luck indeed..

Meanwhile, Gavin had made it to the shop and had been able to find the big fishing net he had hoped he would find. He sat in the car for a minute thinking about what he, Rachel, and Louise would do once they got to the carnival. He thought about the carnival workers and how they would have to avoid them as much as possible in part to be able to catch Mr. Tophat by surprise. He thought how everyone there would be waiting for them, expecting them to want to put up a fight more than likely, how they would all be in danger..

Gavin put his foot on the gas pedal after starting the car and drove out of the parking lot in a hurry. He pulled out into the street that would head back to the carnival, going as fast as he could. He wanted to get there before he could think twice about stopping from heading over there and trying to stop Mr. Tophat on his own. He didn't want Rachel and Louise to be put in more danger if he could help it. Trying to be patient with the red lights he had to stop for, Gavin sped up the rest of the time, going faster as he got closer to the more densely populated area in the woods. He was a little over halfway to the carnival when he saw smoke emitting from under the hood of the car. He pulled over and lifted the hood and saw that the engine which was not in shape enough for high speeds it turned out, had overheated. Gavin put his hands on his head and pressed them on either side of his temples, pushing his hands past them and to the back of his head before dropping his arms to his sides. He had no water with him, or any type of handheld mini fan to help cool the engine.

Gavin wasn't aware of any water stream that that could be near by. He could either walk a certain distance away from the road and hope to find a water source, wait for someone to drive by and wave them down for help, or walk the rest of the way to the carnival with the net. Whichever decision he made, each one would take over half an hour, as even just walking the rest of the way to the carnival would mean having to lug the large net he got with him the whole way there. Gavin went to the edge of the side of the road he was on and saw a steep dent that lasted all the way down to the bottom of the earth that looked around ten feet below him. He carefully started to step down, digging his feet into the mostly soft dirt so he didn't roll all the way down. When he got to the bottom he stood still and listened carefully for any sign of moving water. Hearing nothing he walked a few feet further, noticing that there was too much stretch of land with nothing but trees to be seen for as far as he could see for there to be any flowing water anywhere near by. Heaving a sigh Gavin turned around and started to climb up to the road. Halfway up he heard a vehicle coming close. He started to race up, digging his fingers deeper into the dirt to help himself up as his feet mostly slid as he climbed. When he got hold of the edge of the road he pulled himself up in time to see a taxi that drove past the car and was going almost out of sight up the road now. Too late to wave it down, Gavin had no choice but to get the net out of the trunk of the car and walk the rest of the way to the carnival with it, hoping that there could be a chance that someone else might drive by and give him a ride the rest of the way..

Rachel was just minutes away from the carnival now. She started to take deep breaths as she started to grow more nervous the closer they got. She had seen the car Gavin had taken out about fifteen minutes back. She didn't tell the taxi driver to stop but looked out of the back window of the taxi after they passed the car, to see someone that looked exactly like Gavin from afar, show up on the road soon after. Rachel wasn't sure why he was heading towards the carnival alone, or if the reason he had stopped was because of the cap she had removed from one of the tires, or because of something else that looked like could have gone wrong with the car. But he seemed safe for now, although stranded, so Rachel put her concern and now also anger with Gavin for being where he was without having gone back home to get her like he was supposed to, behind what she was now needing to focus on solely. The taxi driver that had only spoke so far to ask Rachel about where she was going and how to get there at times, now looked up back at her from the rear view mirror to ask about her situation.

"So.. Going to a costume party of some sort up here, or something?" He asked her.

"Sort of." Rachel answered from the backseat, letting out a breath.

"You seem kinda nervous. Everything okay?"

"It will be. Hopefully." Rachel replied, saying that last word softly, not knowing of what the absolute outcome with everything would be, but still hoping for the best.

The taxi stopped at the front gates of the carnival a few minutes later, and Rachel looked out the side window for any signs of movements before she opened the back door of the taxi. She continued to see nothing as she stepped out, turning around for just a moment to thank the taxi driver for his help as she paid him for his service. The driver told Rachel to be careful and take care before driving off, hoping things would turn out okay for his young passenger. Rachel walked through the gate's entrance and continued to look all around as she walked slowly through the carnival grounds, not sure where to go.. And then she did. Rachel headed towards the main tent, the place where any big event on the carnival grounds would happen. The place Mr. Tophat would want it to, a place for a big show.

"Everyone must be in there.." Rachel thought.

Nothing to worry about when you have everything and everyone you need to be concerned with, all in one place. All you needed to do was wait for who needed to show up to arrive.. Rachel was quiet as she got to the tent. She looked around the flap that was pulled back from the left exit of the tent and saw all the carnival workers stationed around various spots inside. One of the workers was close to where she was, but was distracted by the commotion that was happening in the center ring. Yelling was starting to take place, sounding like impatience was growing in the raised words that were starting to be shouted out, all by the one in charge. The workers started to move closer to the middle of the tent as Rachel took the opportunity to move into it now that the shouting was coming to a point. The carnival workers were fully faced towards a raised platform that Rachel could see was in the main center ring as she moved further into the tent, covered by the darkness that wasn't lit up by any of the lights inside that were now all mostly focused on Mr. Tophat.. Along with Akiko and Graham, that were both locked into two separate contraptions, guillotines, with scared looks on their faces as Mr. Tophat began to pace quickly back and forth on the platform that all three of them were all on.

"So, I guess your friends aren't too concerned with saving your lives so much after all!" Mr. Tophat said, talking as if he had been in some small talk earlier with Akiko and Graham, probably talking to try and stall for time as they all waited for Rachel and Gavin to arrive. "Almost four hours have passed and there has been no show AT ALL of either of them! So I guess I won't have any use for the two of you after all!" Mr. Tophat yelled out, going to the end of the platform on the right side where he placed a hand on a lever that was sticking out above Akiko and Graham's heads as they were locked in the guillotines bent over, hands and heads pad locked into the holes they were sticking out of, unable to move away at all. Shiny, sharp looking large blades hung over their heads that were locked into wooden frames, waiting to be released. Akiko and Graham's eyes opened wide in terror as they knew what would happen if that lever got pulled down. They both opened their mouths to scream out in protest, as Mr. Tophat's hand began to come down with the lever in it's grip..

"STOP!" A voice yelled out, making everyone look over to where the voice was coming from. Out from the shadows where the stands near the left exit to the tent stood, came a figure who stepped out from the darkness. A carnival worker shown a spotlight at the area so the figure could be seen in the darkness, and every mouth on the platform dropped open..


End file.
